 Nostalgia, DVDs, old movies, television, OTR, fandom, good news and bad, picks, pans, cute budgie stories, cute terrier stories, and anything else I can think of. Contact me at theyoungfamily (at) earthlink (dot) net . . . . . . . . . .
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» Thursday, January 30, 2025
Long Day's Journey into Long Days and Longer Nights
I've been blogging much longer than I've ever been on social media, but those little dribs and drabs of posts are so much easier when you've been busy with other things, whether health chores and household duties and just wanting to write, so I was hoping I could make a resolution that I would write at least once a week in this blog and keep up with it, not just dump three to five posts at a time in a racing game of "catchup." January 2025 has punched us both in the face, but it's James that took the brunt. Back in December he started to complain about feeling irritated in the groin area. I duly examined him, both back and front, several times. He does tend to get little fungal infections where the flesh of his abdomen meets the flesh of his thighs, and we keep miconazole powder in the house for that problem. It usually clears up little skin fissures or reddened, sticky skin in two to four days. But I didn't see any signs of skin fissure down in the areas he indicated; I examined very slowly and carefully. There was no redness, no swelling, no open sores, and no pain. Since James has mobility problems, I'm the one who cleans up down there nightly, and I kept on the lookout for redness/swelling/abraded skin or open sores. He finally got on Kaiser mid-December to get an appointment to get it looked at, but of course that wouldn't be until mid-January. In the meantime we just kept racing to get him that "cement" procedure on his fractured vertebrae and arrange physical therapy afterwards and him getting to dialysis three days a week, just run, run, run to doctors' appointments and when we weren't doing that we were staying home because we were both just so damn tired. We missed Christmas dinner because dialysis two days in a row made him sick; the only nice day we had was going out to Canton on the 26th for books and pizza. On New Year's Day I notice he had a small lump on his backside under the skin, about the size of a big green olive but elongated. Again, it wasn't red, swollen, abraded, and not particularly painful, but he could feel that I was touching it. We agreed we had to mention it to Dr. Mobley. I kept checking it every night and it wasn't getting larger. On January 4, he had blood in his urine. Of course, we thought, he's got another UTI. We went to Urgent Care on Sunday the 5th. James had no signs of UTI that day—his urine was even yellow again, although with doing the intermittent catherization, it's never very clear and often had an odd smell. We were told that was common in both IC and with him having dialysis because he's on a restricted fluid intake. That was the shortest time we had ever been in Urgent Care! They did a urine test, gave him oral antibiotics rather than an IV as they almost always do, and also gave him some pain medication due to the "UTI" making him uncomfortable. I did show the doctor the olive-sized lump near his right buttock. The doctor replied that it was probably a small abscess and that the antibiotics (four big pills a day for ten days) should take care of it. We stopped for ice cream on the way home and the cashier saw my "Unapologetic Fanfic Writer" magnet on the driver's side door and since there were no other customers, yakked a minute or two about fanfic. She was a Supernatural fan and I recommended a story to her. That was the last nice thing I remember happening. To get the urine sample for the UTI test at Urgent Care, I had brought along an unwrapped catheter and lube. The doctor at UC let me take the sample after I'd washed my hands and put on gloves and used the wipes. I noticed that I had a little trouble getting the catheter in, but thought it was the angle James was sitting on the stretcher. When I went to cath him that evening, however, and when I washed him, I noticed with some dismay that his scrotum was swollen. I told him about it, and he said he had noticed some discomfort. He had dialysis the next day, and I told him the moment he was finished, we needed to head back to Urgent Care. He agreed. About two minutes later he asked me to rinse him off quick; his legs were feeling a bit wobbly. I did, he took one step out of the shower, but his left leg would not follow after his right. I tried to hold him up, but instead he slipped down, in a very painful looking crouch, with his poor crotch ending up on the doorstop on the shower compartment. I lost it completely. I was so hysterical on the phone the 911 operator had to tell me to breathe. I could barely talk without my teeth chattering and I was shaking almost too hard to hold the phone. The firemen showed up and somehow one of them got in back of James and one in front and got him out. James said he was okay and sat on the toilet and they left and he finished drying off and successfully limped into bed. About four a.m. he got up to use the toilet and his knees gave out again. The same firemen came. They got James to the end of the bed, and the head officer said, "If this happens again, he needs to go straight to the emergency room." At six a.m. (Monday, January 6) I called DaVita, who basically said that if he couldn't walk he couldn't come in for dialysis and we needed to go to ER. We slept a little more and then called Kaiser and they said the same thing. So I called for an ambulance and they had to take him out of the bedroom in a little folding chair, then got him on the chair lifts downstairs, then took him on a stretcher to the ambulance. In the meantime I uncovered Piper, put the TV on for him, made sure Tucker had food, ran him outside while the ambulance drivers took stats and set James up, then packed up some things really fast (we have an emergency room bag with plugs and stuff) and followed them to Emory St. Joseph. He was in the ER most of the day, half asleep, while I repeated what had happened several times, and finally got a room in the evening. They eventually put him on the fifth floor and started pumping him full of antibiotics. This is liable to turn into War and Peace if I let it, so suffice it to say James is still in the hospital as I write this and will be for the forseeable future. After a restless day on Tuesday, January 7, during which we watched the State viewing for President Jimmy Carter, James' situation gradually worsened. Even though he still had no fever, he started talking off his head, just complaining of pain only and saying nothing else coherent. I was told a serious infection sometimes does this, even without a fever. I could do nothing to comfort him and, indeed, at least once the hospital staff had to call me to see if I could talk him into taking his meds because he was spitting them out. On Wednesday evening, as she was cleaning James, one of the nurses discovered something disturbing on the underside of his swollen scrotum and took a photo to call the doctor, who ordered an ultrasound and a CT scan after I left. I had already been worried because I had noticed an odd smell several hours earlier. On Thursday, January 9, they transferred him from Emory St. Joseph to Emory Decatur because the Kaiser specialty urology doctor was located at the Decatur location. He was taken to Progressive Care rather than the ICU as St. Joe's had ordered, and I was at my wit's end when the nurse said she couldn't find his files. Finally about ten o'clock (at night; they had transferred hospitals right in the middle of rush hour and it had taken me an hour to go thirteen miles) the surgeon (Dr. Chen) came rushing in, demanding to the nurse why James wasn't in ICU prepping to go to the operating room because he needed surgery right away. He was pissed off that St. Joe's had not noticed what the nurse noticed when he was admitted and why they'd frittered away three days. Alice had come over earlier to put Piper to bed and give Tucker a short walk and do lights out, and I headed home just as they were taking James to the OR. I had no way to stay overnight; there wasn't even a recliner and, although I had my heart pill for the night, we were about to get snow and I wouldn't be able to get home. I was "snowbound" at home for two days from three inches and Atlanta's abysmal snow prep. I'd like to say I was industrious and took all the Christmas decorations down but all I could do for two days was cry and mope around the house. (I finally got the Christmas stuff down during the freezing rain day I had to stay home during almost two weeks later.) James was incoherent for pretty much a week and then slowly began getting his senses back. It was so bad at several points they had to restrain him because he was trying to pull his trache tube and even his dialysis ports out. He had one more OR foray while he was in ICU and had to stay on the breathing tube for two more days after his heart rate spiked and blood pressure dropped after coming back to the room. At the moment he's graduated from ICU to a step-down unit and today had another session in the OR to remove dead skin from what turned out to be Fournier's gangrene. You can look that up yourself; once was enough for me. What do you do about something the doctor tells you is "catastrophic"?
Pretty much all he can do is lie in bed and be patient and/or in pain. I can't even leave his phone and/or his tablet with him to amuse himself because his right arm is swollen from having IVs stuck in it and, about ten days ago, after I returned from that "freezing rain" day, his left arm swelled up like a stuck pig. Supposedly it's from fluid retention because he can't have a full dialysis session, but they really don't know what's happened; he had an ultrasound and a CT scan on it a week ago, and they came around to do another one today, but that was after he left for the OR (the ultrasound tech said he would come back). Someone—sometimes me, sometimes the nurse—has to feed him, and they have to turn him every two hours because he's basically sitting on his wound and there's no where else to position him. Physical therapy has come around and it's scary the way he's weakened from doing really well after the first surgery to two weeks later where he can barely move. I have "homework," too, to smooth his left arm from hand to shoulder in an attempt to "push" the fluid out. He can't even make a fist or grab with that left hand right now. I'm not sick, but the toll is...immense. It's a fifty mile drive round trip, I'm buying gas every five days, traffic is frightening, my car isn't in all that good a shape, and I'm exhausted. By the time I get home I can barely warm up or cook supper and spend a few scant hours with the fids before it's time to go to bed and start the whole rigamarole over again: gobble breakfast, feed and walk Tucker, make sure Piper is watered and fed and has the television on, and leave. Some friends have asked if they can come visit and take me to dinner. I don't know what to say because by the time I get home I'm flat out of energy. I sleep but don't sleep well; two nights ago I woke up disoriented and thinking I was in the hospital but it was all dark and James was missing and I was screaming "Where am I? Where is my husband? Why doesn't someone come when I call?" until I crawled out of bed toward the light coming around the bathroom door (from the nightlight) and realized where I was. My eyes hurt all the time and I can't rest except for the couple hours a night I lose myself in Law & Order: Criminal Intent between calling up the hospital to get a nightly report on James (and sometimes get to talk to him). And sometimes it's like he just gets to feeling better when they have to do another procedure and everything starts all over again. But he's back in the room now and not intubated and they say he's doing okay for now and he's even hungry (which he wasn't at all from the 9th to the 19th!).  » Sunday, December 29, 2024
Dialysis Blues, Lone Christmas, and Farewell to a President
 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 » Sunday, December 22, 2024
Pancakes, Mysterious Happenings, and More Doctoring
Sigh. James' restless legs have done it again. Now he's torn a hole through the dark blue sheets. So I had to go to Walmart on Monday to buy new sheets because I needed a bottom sheet, and had to change the bed again, although I just changed it yesterday. Plus Walmart's "hotel quality" sheets aren't as good as when I bought the first two sets a couple of years ago: they now have a satin quality that, even with the deep corners and thick elastic band on the bottom sheet, makes the sheet slips on the mattress (and I can't find my sheet "garters," even though I know I still have them). Plus they no longer label the "top/bottom" on the bottom sheet so you know the short end from the long end. Faugh.On Tuesday we were thinking of going to Canton, but we simply just went to Woodstock and had breakfast at the IHOP. Do you know they no longer have silver dollar pancakes for adults anymore? You can only get them on the children's menu now! The waitress was really sweet and said she would say I was ordering a short stack, but ask the cook to make me silver dollars instead. Except the cook didn't and I got the short stack, but the waitress talked to the manager and they gave me a complementary order of silver dollar pancakes! We tipped her really well and, as I could barely get through the short stack, brought the silver dollars home. [Later: We had them for breakfast Christmas Day!] Wednesday I finally gave Tucker a bath. He was overdue for one when he got so sick last month. On Thursday something baffling happened. We went to see Dr. Ahmad at the Doctors Building at Emory St. Joseph. This was basically a waste of our time as we had already seen Drs. Hobson and Keel; all he said was that he concurred with their diagnosis. (Well, if we could, we'd get it done, because now Dr. Keel is saying James needs a current echocardiogram because he hasn't had one since 2022. That is bullshit because he had one in the hospital in June when his kidneys failed and another either in July or in August. [Later: it was August.]) Anyway, when we left the Emory garage, the power chair was fine. The back was folded down. We left the garage, paid the attendant, the barrier came up, and we were on our way. We made the mistake of going to the Trader Joe's on Roswell Road rather than our usual Trader Joe's at Market Square. There was intense road construction right before Roswell, and we had to inch along for what seemed like ages. I went in by myself to get more orange chicken and other Christmas goodies that will disappear on December 26. This is a big open parking lot, no overhangs. Then we went to Kaiser Cumberland to pick up some prescriptions for James. Again, big open parking lot, no overhangs. When we got home, the head rest of the power chair (remember, the back of the chair was folded down so it was over the seat) was bent 45 degrees. This headrest support is made from steel. All James can figure is that when we went through the exit gate at Emory, it somehow caught on the head rest and bent it. How? We don't know. Why wasn't the rest of the chair damaged? Dunno, but thank goodness it wasn't! Saturday we were planning to go out, but James didn't sleep during the night, so we slept late and had Zaxby's for supper and watched Christmas stories. Sunday we did go out, then went to Big Lots because we heard they were going out of business. The line was very long, but the two cashiers were very efficient. We got some cool bargains. I'm bummed with Big Lots going out of business, though. Where will I get my shampoo now? Labels: chores, Christmas, doctors, events, food, health, shopping » Sunday, November 10, 2024
The Turn of Events
We saw our first Christmas lights Monday night, November 4! I love Christmas decorations, guys! But, too early!Tried to avoid election coverage on Tuesday by watching a movie, but after the film curiosity got the better of us and we stayed up until midnight watching the returns. I will admit I am not happy, although I disliked both candidates. When your new "leader" nominates an anti-vaxxer to run a health organization there is something wrong. Our parents worshiped the ground Drs. Salk and Sabin walked on, because their children were not crippled, were not confined to an iron lung, did not die from polio, all because of vaccines. Smallpox was a dreadful thing. Just not right. Chores for the rest of the week, and a visit to Dr. Salazar on Friday ended the week. We had not yet seen the orders for the tests, but he assured us they were in the system. So Saturday was a very busy day: we were up early to get in line for free electronics recycling day. Yay, that stupid microwave James keeps barking his leg on is gone. Also my venerable vacuum cleaner, which gave me much joy. The new one works wonderfully, but it's still too heavy. Then we had Hair Day and got to see Mel and Phyllis! We nipped home afterward for a meal (James made pork chops and we ate at three), and then went to Kaiser Townpark. James had two CT scans starting at 5:40, and then we had to wait the hour until his 8 p.m. MRI. It was a relief to get home. It was chilly and cloudy on Sunday, such wonderful weather! Tucker and I had a long walk, me clad in my favorite fabric, flannel! Later I put up the upstairs and foyer Thanksgiving decorations Labels: Christmas, election, events, exercise, friends, health, sickness, Thanksgiving, weather » Sunday, October 20, 2024
Infections and Outings
This week's high even had a disappointing low. On Sunday we went to the Apple Festival and, while it was nice to walk the fairgrounds, it was very tiring and I was suffering from lack of sleep, and feeling very woozy and out of it.We made a short stop at Panorama Orchards for the necessities of life: fresh Granny Smith apples, blackberry spread, the tea sold in little wooden crates (but they quit making the ginger peach), sugar-free taffy, and a few other things. Then we decided to stop in Canton to eat, hoping to go to the Thai place, but they are closed Sunday and Monday. Brooklyn Joe's was slammed, so we went to Cheeseburger Bobby's. This was really good: you got enough meat in the burger and the onion rings were excellent! It was pretty expensive, though. Stopped at Books-a-Million briefly, then got stuck in traffic on the way home. ::sigh:: The week started badly because we had to see Dr. Coyle on short notice. They noticed at dialysis that his fistula incision was weeping and had been giving him IV antibiotics on his last two visits. She said she didn't want him having that much vancomycin. She put him on oral antibiotics and told me to put Betadyne on the incision and keep it covered. [The Betadyne did do the trick eventually, but we can't figure out what happened in the first place as we followed all her instructions on caring for the wound to the letter.] Just chores for the rest of the week, including cleaning out decrepit emergency toilet-flushing water bottles from the garage. » Sunday, October 13, 2024
The Roller Coaster is Exhausting
Well, what to do about the faucet problem. Despite the fact that I was washing dishes in the bathroom and filling pitchers of water there, James used the kitchen faucet a couple of times and it didn't explode. However, it did need to be fixed. So while scrolling the internet, I found a company called "Steve's Handy," a handyman service. Steve had all five stars from people who used him.So I called him and he was supposed to come Monday afternoon, but the previous job ran long. We made an appointment for 10:30 next morning, which was neat because now James could talk to him. He showed up promptly, then showed us some faucet options. We picked a Glacier Bay with a spray unit in the faucet head. He then went to Home Depot to pick up the faucet while I cleaned out under the sink. He came back with the faucet and installed it. Well, I've had this "punch list" of small things that had needed doing for years, like the light in the bathroom downstairs. I asked Steve to look at the items. Folks, he took care of all of them. * We haven't had a light in the downstairs bathroom in years. When James tried to fix it, back when he could still climb ladders, he could not get the light out of the cowling it was in. Steve was able to fix it—it turned out when James tried to replace the light bulb that burned out, the glass cover on the fixture was so tight he actually pulled out the whole fixture, which is why he couldn't get the light bulb out—Steve was able to get the clear cover off and just screwed in the light bulb. * Steve used a special needle-nosed plier and got the broken light bulb base out of the overhead ceiling fan light in the library. This has been out of commission almost as long as the bathroom light, and it now has a bulb back in it! The cover is even back on it and the pull cords for the fan and the light back on. The screws that hold the cover were lost, but, since Steve had to go back to Home Depot to get a plug to cover the spray hose hole, he also picked up some generic screws so the cover could go back on. (It's not bright enough for the library, but I didn't have a 100 watt equivalent bulb that would fit.) * I finally got our "Wizard of Speed and Time" poster reframed in the better frame I bought for it at least five years ago and Steve re-hung it in the foyer. * Best of all, he got up on a ladder and was able to move our Leaf indoor antenna up as high as it would go (another four feet to the west and higher by at least 16 inches), and now we are getting Georgia Public Broadcasting again and Ion TV (I think we may have lost the better signal on "the Loop" which shows old black and white TV, though...oh, well). I re-scanned the television only two days ago and came up with 80 channels; scanned it again today and got 95. I've only reached 92 scanned channels previously, during the winter when the leaves are off the trees. Usually, once the trees leaf out we lose GPB completely. Steve is definitely getting five stars and more from us!!!!! (Also, he's a theater person and tech-y and knows the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company!) So if you're in the area (Cobb County, Georgia, from Smyrna north to Acworth) and need some work done, check out Steve's Handy! These are all the things Steve does, per his Yelp listing: Handyman assembly Circuit breaker installation Electric installation or replacement Wire installation Faucet installation Garbage disposal installation Handyman installation Outlet installation Handyman painting Plumbing repair Sink installation Switch installation Toilet installation Water pipe installation Handyman caulking Electric inspection Electric repair Wire repair Faucet repair Garbage disposal repair Light fixture repair Outlet repair Plumbing installation or replacement Handyman repair Sink repair Switch repair Toilet repair Water pipe repair Well, all this high had to have a downward slope, didn't it? It's the way things go these days. When James went to dialysis Wednesday afternoon, the PA looked at his fistula wound and thought it was getting infected. They put antibiotic on it and sent a tube of it home with him, and gave him IV antibiotics. They also said if it was worse by Saturday we would have to go to the emergency room. Yes, I freaked. I did notice it was a little red on Tuesday. We have been doing just as the doctor ordered since the surgery: soap and water washing only, pat dry, a little Mupirocin on the incision. No bandaging necessary, even though the wound would rub against his shirt. Well, it's going to be bandaged from now on, until we see Dr. Coyle next week (James called her immediately). So at night we are cleaning it out with wound cleaner, covering it up so the shower doesn't wet it, then re-cleaning it, putting Mupirocin on it, and bandaging it. DaVita gave him more intravenous antibiotic on Friday as well. They said it didn't look any worse and, since the doctor said I was treating it the right way (we sent her photos), just rebandaged it. (I hate the way they rebandage it. They put tape on his arms that pulled off some skin. In good news, we got some stuff done on Thursday, and then on Saturday took a long drive up to Cumming to celebrate Jessica Clerici's 31st birthday. I loved seeing our friends, but Mellow Mushroom sat us outside so there was room for all of us to sit together. In the sun. In almost 80℉ weather. I had a migraine that kicked in immediately and with the glare and the heat, I had to retreat to a shadier seat. Juanita had bought the coolest candle for the cake. It looked like a flower with long yellow pistels, but they were wicks. You lighted it in the middle and all the wicks ignited and the "petals" fell open and rotated while it played "Happy birthday." We were in walking distance of a Barnes & Noble, so we walked around it for a few minutes and I bought a Christmas romance and something called A Werewolf's Guide to Seducing a Vampire for Hallowe'en reading. The moment we got home we both took a nap. Sun takes so much out of us. Sigh. Today I did a bunch of little chores including cleaning out the cart where I have all his bandages and medicines. With grim irony James calls it his "crash cart." Steve left a tool here and is supposed to come back to pick it up. Maybe he will put up the new light bulb I bought at Home Depot on Friday. I walked in there and came face-to-face with Christmas! They had nearly two dozen Christmas trees (they're all so tall; what happened to six-foot trees?) and I actually liked a slim-line one, but I don't think it would fit all 200 of our ornaments. I suppose I could get rid of some...but I love them all. Labels: birthdays, chores, Christmas, events, friends, health, home improvement, home repairs, illness, medication, purchases, television » Sunday, September 08, 2024
Some Farewells are Harder Than Others
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 » Sunday, September 01, 2024
Breathing Rarefied Air
As the kids today say, I "did a thing." I was deathly in fear of doing this "thing" because it involved leaving James alone for the day. Make no mistake, he is much stronger and fitter than he was when he got out of the hospital at the end of June. But he still doesn't feel stable enough on his feet, mostly due to his back and knee pain, to go back to a cane or even back to where he was months ago just walking slowly and making sure he has touchpoints. He still relies on the rolling walker we got from Kaiser, but he's been using it to get around the kitchen much better—if still painfully—to the point where he can even wash a pan or two to start prepping. When I told him what I wanted to do, he said, "Go ahead, do it. I want you to do it. You need the break and you deserve it." He even went on Amazon and ordered a tray/storage compartment that fit on the top of the walker so I didn't have to help him transport the parts of his breakfast anymore (the egg plate or the burritos, the tea, the oatmeal, and the smoothie drink). He kept repeating "I will be fine." I was still paranoid, especially about what if he had a fall or had chest pains that didn't go away with nitroglycerin. To assuage that, I made sure the chair lift seat wasn't blocking the door and left a house key hidden on the porch, then told him to keep his phone on him at all times. If he had to call 911, hopefully he could tell them where the key was and they could get in without damaging the door. So I did it. From the moment that I saw Vincent D'Onofrio was going to be at DragonCon, I wanted to be there. We haven't gone since 2019, and, although I miss it, I don't miss the crowds, the constant noise, the crowds, the heat between the hotels, the crowds, the long wait for elevators since James is in the power chair, the crowds...well, you get it. I'm homesick for it, because DragonCon has been an alternate "home" for years, with a bunch of people I adore who I only see mainly there (the BritTrack people, the Trek Track folks, the sci-fi lit panel regulars, etc.). I miss them. So I bought a Sunday membership and bought a photo op (it's a very early birthday gift to myself). Alice did offer me to loan me her badge on Saturday (which would have been naughty, but...) while she watched the Georgia football game, but I decided against it (but thanked her copiously). She reminded me to get parking in advance, which I did (and it turned out I didn't need to, as there was plenty of space on Sunday at less than I paid for pre-paid, but...better safe than sorry, as everyone's mom has said at least once). We made it down to the wire with James neither having a fall or chest pains by Saturday night. Thursday night I was feeling guilty and said to him, "Maybe I should have gotten you a Sunday membership," thinking he could have wandered about while I was doing my fangirl thing. But just going for an echocardiogram, eating out at Pacific Buffet, and stopping at Barnes & Noble had wiped him out that day, and he demurred. Sunday morning, after not a lot of sleep due to anxiety, I was up at 7:30. My backpack was already kitted up with some snacks, my camera, a folder to put my reserved photo from the photo op in, my tablet, etc. I dressed, fed and walked Tucker, used the bathroom, and off Butch and I went. The bad day driving to DragonCon is always Friday, because of rush-hour traffic; on Sunday the freeway is practically empty. We freewheeled following the GPS down I-75, exited at Courtland Street, turned left on Andrew Young, and drove up to opposite the Westin. With SpotHero all I did was drive into the garage, find a parking space, and walk off (coming out was just as easy; I didn't have to scan a QR code or anything). After five years of non-attendance, you would have thought I'd fumble around trying to remember things. Nope—it's all muscle memory now, like riding a bicycle. It was cool and shady enough that I just walked down the big long hill from the Westin to the Courtland Grand (formerly the Sheraton), stopped once by a young blond woman who saw my Law & Order: Criminal Intent t-shirt (bought especially for the occasion!) and gushed "I love your shirt! I love that show," crossed Courtland Street again, and headed for registration. This was easy-peasy, just follow others through a little Disney World serpentine, show my QR code, and get my badge. Took five minutes. Then I went to Disability Services, because, while I am willing to wait in line, I cannot be outside in the sun or else Mr. Headache, Mr. Palpitations, and then Mr. Diarrhea will visit me in short order. DS decided that was justifiable and I got a seat in line and end of row designation. Now, breakfast! Again by long habit: hike the block to the Courtland Garage, use their elevator to what James and I have always called "the Luke Skywalk" and into Peachtree Center and the myriad of eating locations, some shuttered until lunch, others open for breakfast. Of course I went to Cafe Momo, which is a big buffet-by-the-pound, as I planned to have a hearty meal and then just snack later. In my styrofoam container I put oatmeal in one small compartment, roast potatoes in the other, a slice of French toast and some peeled and sliced oranges and kiwi fruit in the big compartment. Finishing off with a reduced-fat milk and a bagel and cream cheese, I went out to the tables to eat. (They have lots of other stuff—eggs—yuck!—both scrambled and fried and spicy; grits, pre-made tortilla shell meals with meat and lettuce; different fruits; coffee and tea; cereals; etc.) Oh, if you were looking for Waldo, I found him having breakfast at Peachtree Center, too! When I got done it was much too early to go to the Walk of Fame where Vincent D'Onofrio would be signing things, so I marched over the skybridges through the Marriott and into the Hilton to descend to the oh-so-wonderful coolness of the Galleria level where Trek Track and BritTrack are and walked into the Lower Decks panel. Alan Siler was on the panel and I can't remember when I'd seen him in person last. I got two hugs and we talked and he told me how he was splitting the book he was writing in three parts, and that his Kozmic Press outfit is going to be doing an anthology of essays of women talking about how they were influenced by the Beatles. You so rarely see books written about how women have been influenced by rock bands! And the panel was fun, too, talking about favorite moments in Lower Decks—has any scene been funnier than the punchline with T'Ana and the box she asks Beckett and Tendi to fetch?—and if this is really the end for the series. Now I moseyed on back to the Marriott and the Walk of Fame; there was no line at this point and I just strolled right in. The actors sit in little booths talking to the fans and selling autographs (James and I have been going long enough to remember when you bought the photos from a dealer or from the actor and the actors signed them for free!). Jodie Whittaker (Doctor #13) was signing autographs practically in front of me. Vincent D'Onofrio wasn't at his booth, so I walked around checking everyone out. Anson Mount, when I finally spied him, was wearing a baseball hat, so no glimpse of the infamous Pike hair wave, and looked tired. There was a lively crowd around "the hobbits" (Dominic Monaghan, Billy Boyd, and Elijah Wood). And I absolutely had to stop and say hi to Barry Gordon when he was free. He does animation voices now, but I remember Barry Gordon from when he was a child actor, especially in the film A Thousand Clowns with Jason Robards. It was on television in the late 60s and I cried at the end when Robards realized that, to support his abandoned nephew (Gordon) properly, he would have to give up his bohemian lifestyle and take a 9-to-5 job. When he walks off dressed in the suit carrying a briefcase just like all the other white-collar automatons in NYC I burst into tears. He seemed happy that I remembered it. Finally I went back to the line to find out that Vincent D'Onofrio was expected shortly, so I got into line. I had his two books with me, Mutha and Pigs Can't Look Up. Unfortunately, I found out in line that it was cash only. I'd been talking with various of his fans in line, including other CI fans, and the guy dressed as the Fourth Doctor said, "There's an ATM over there; I'll hold your place!" and I ran over and got the cash. Turned out I could only have one book signed with the money I had and I really couldn't afford both, so I got Mutha signed and told him I remembered going to the Monkey Jungle place in Florida that he wrote about when I was about two or three (I agree; it was a terrible place, all noise and agitated simians and smelled horrible, and why parents dragged kids there I'll never know). The line was long and I didn't want to take too much of his time, so I never asked him James' question, which was if we would ever see a DVD or at least a streaming release of Night of the Cooters, and then I was sorry a few minutes later when another woman engaged him in conversation for at least two or three minutes. (While I'd been waiting earlier he told the woman before me the story of the unusual voice he uses for the Jack Horne character in the remake of The Magnificent Seven. He was in London doing a movie (I wonder if it was the Sherlock Holmes film) and he was waiting at a restaurant when this enormous man walked in; he actually blocked the light coming in the restaurant door he was so big, and "his hands were the size of baseball mitts." So he says something to him and this huge man replies in this high-pitched voice, so he wanted to use that voice in the future.) I stood there a long time watching him interact with everyone. Honestly, he looks gorgeous. You can tell he works out and takes care of himself; the only sign that he's older is the grey hair and beard. His hands are still absolutely beautiful, long slim fingers like a pianist's might be. (Yeah, I'm gushing here...) I also ran into Rob Bowen and got a hug. I was really restricting myself on locations, so perhaps it followed, but I didn't run into nearly as many people as I do—I usually see someone from ARTC, or Mark Heffernan, or the Rays, or Roger Nichols, or even Laura Hayden...but...no. Finally I decided I needed to hit a bathroom and hie myself over to the Hyatt to get in line for the 2:30 panel. I'd been in terrible fear that I would need to pee before the panel and lose my place in line or, even worse, have to pee during the panel, so I was sucking on watermelon candies and hadn't drunk anything since the milk at breakfast (which was terrible—it was labeled "ultra-filtered milk" and tasted like milk-flavored water). So when a friendly looking woman sat next to me in the waiting area I started talking to her and we were "bathroom buddies" for the duration; she watched my backpack while I used the rest room and then I watched hers. We bonded over knee surgery, which she'd had (both knees) and I was telling her James wished he could. (BTW, I periodically texted James all day, mostly to receive the response "I'm fine; have fun!")
The panel loaded quickly, and I got a nice aisle seat where I could take a lot of photos. Vincent was on this panel with Mike Colter, who played Luke Cage in the short-lived series. They were very easy with each other and it turned out they knew each other from sometime back when Colter was in an episode of CI ("Albatross"). (They had this very funny back-and-forth about the meaning of the word "albatross"—yes, it's a really neat bird, but it also has a metaphorical meaning and so on...) Since this was a panel about Marvel, the questions were mostly about Kingpin and Luke Cage, a lot of it going over my head since I've avoided Daredevil due to the violence. He did talk about how he loved the role, but that gaining the extra weight every time they filmed was getting harder because it's hard to lose weight as you get older. For the newest series, they have a new "fat suit" which he said is still very warm, but is very light, "like a sneaker," he described it. So with that and the use of prosthetics and makeup he doesn't have to gain the weight any longer (which is fine with me because he looks so fine!). Vincent also told the story about how he got the part of Private Pyle in Full Metal Jacket; Matthew Modine, a friend of his, encouraged him to audition via a short film (he was working as a bodyguard at that time) and he rented a camera and performed some dialog from a play. Stanley Kubrick was impressed enough by the film to call him, and the first time he hung up on Kubrick because he thought it was a joke. Kubrick called right back and said immediately, "Don't hang up!" Once the panel was over, I had a short appointment in the ladies' room—"unavoidable delay" as Frank Gilbreth would put it—since it wasn't crowded, which I used it as an opportunity to decompress and cool down. It was not yet 4:30 when I headed downstairs for my 5 p.m.photo op. The area outside was crowded and hot, and I noticed from my appointment printout that I was still early, so I wandered in the rest room for a little longer and splashed cold water on myself and cleaned my face off and put a tiny bit of blush on. I'd never done one of these before so I wandered back following the signs not knowing what to expect. The basement level of the Marriott was partitioned off with a lot of dark curtains hanging from portable curtain stands. It was hard to be in this area without nostalgia because it had served DragonCon as the Dealer's Room and the Walk of Fame for so many years; it was here I got June Lockhart's autograph and talked to Dee Wallace-Stone about her being back to back with June Lockhart—two of Lassie's TV moms together! (Now the Dealer's Room takes up four levels of the Merchandise Mart!) The one thing I hate about the new Walk of Fame is they forbid you to take unauthorized photos; I used to love going in there and get candid shots of the performers interacting with the fans. I have photos of Mark Goddard and numerous other people just sitting behind a table and hanging with congoers. At first you stay in a general area where you wait for your photo op "partner" to be called. While a bunch of us waited, including a woman in a "DUN DUN" Law & Order shirt, I saw someone dressed as Vincent's Daredevil character Kingpin come in, portly, with the white dinner jacket, the cane and all. Then there were two of them, then three, and finally there were four of them altogether. They posed for pictures with the people waiting. It was funny. Then we D'Onofrio fans got called back and shuttled into lines. There were some DS seats available, but I was trying to stand and let the seats go for the people with back and leg problems. Now at this point I hadn't actually had a drink since ten a.m., and sucking on Jolly Ranchers wasn't helping any longer. I finally pointed to a chair and asked "May I sit down?" because I glanced at my Fitbit and discovered my pulse was rocking around at about 90. Sitting helped a lot. I was next to a married couple who were teasing each other, and she was in a wonderful T-shirt with Vincent's pic on top and the cityscape at the bottom and the legend "Robert Goren, Detective" at the bottom. Pretty swell! The photo op itself goes by fast because the Epic people are processing the pictures as fast as they can go. You drop your personal stuff on a table, line up, and one by one the person (or persons, because there are group shoots) gets into the picture with you, the photographer yells "Chin down!" and the picture is done and the next person is summoned. I broke protocol at this point, just quickly, because the one thing I had wanted so badly to say at the autograph table never came out. I said very quickly "Thank you for Twitter. It's helped me through some bad places in the last few years" and he bent over me a little to hear what I said and then they took the picture and I think he said "thank you" or something because I was brain fried and totally overheated at this point. Picked up my stuff and asked one of the Kingpins, "What now?" and he said come back here and get your picture, and he pointed it out when we got there, already printed out. And you got checked out to see if you got your photo—and the correct photo—and then it was over.  I really would have liked to stay...but I was tired and hungry and ohIhadtomakesure James was okay. I walked out the back of the Marriott instead of going across the bridge to Peachtree Center and taking the back door, which would have gotten me to within a block of the Westin, but I just did homing pigeon. Walked up the hill past the Hyatt and then crossed Peachtree Center and then left across Harris. By that time I was blowing like a racehorse and stopped to catch my breath at the water features in front of a building on Peachtree Street. In about a minute I was able to take in a lungful of air again to trudge on and turn at the Westin to go back to the parking garage. I will say I am glad we were not in the truck in this garage! It was tiny and if the ramps going up were steep, the ones coming down seemed like they were about at a 45 degree angle! The chair lift would have scraped the ground even without the power chair in it! But yeah, the gate just opened for me and out I went, back on the city streets, and back on the freeway, and then back home, exhausted. I was so happy I cried all the way home. James held dinner for me; it was about six, and it was a turkey burger which I smothered in the wonderful Meadowcroft Farms sweet onion relish. We split a Ritter peppermint-filled dark chocolate bar for dessert. Bliss. My day was complete when I posted my photo op on Twitter and once again thanked Vincent D'Onofrio for his posts—they have truly gotten me through many dark things in the past couple of years—and he liked my post. Well, of course I watched Law & Order: Criminal Intent later on...why do you ask? — [Fitbit stats: 13,546 steps, 5.38 miles, 12 floors, 49 active zones, and 62 active minutes. I put on 1000 steps with walking Tucker twice, but at least 12,000 of those steps were between 8:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. We don't call it "the DragonCon Exercise Program" for nothing.] [At least September 1 was better than August 1. I lost Oliver one month ago today. Miss you, baby bird.] Labels: dogs, DragonCon, dreams, emotions, events, exercise, family, food, friends, television » Sunday, August 04, 2024
Three Strikes: Everything, Sadly, Normal
Empty. The house is empty, even though Ollie didn't chirp all that much
in the beginning and didn't make many noises even when he was sick. No
one to share my peaches and plums with. No one to eat out of my oatmeal
spoon. "How quiet, how quiet the chamber is..."
» Sunday, July 14, 2024
Medical Drama--And Two Big BANGS
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 » Sunday, July 07, 2024
The Dialysis Dance With a Glad Press'n'Seal Chaser
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 » Sunday, June 16, 2024
Cracks in the System
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. » Sunday, April 28, 2024
Just an Ordinary Week (But...Dogs!)
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 » Sunday, April 14, 2024
Partial Sun and Full Runs
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 » Monday, March 18, 2024
Atomicon 2024
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 » Sunday, March 10, 2024
A Matter of Power
I am so pissed!
In our 18 years in this house, we've had normal water pressure, some really good water pressure (like mostly on during the last two years), and some abysmal water pressure, like it was in the fall of 2022. But it's been so nice for the longest time. On Monday when I was cleaning the bathroom, the water in the toilet turned brown. I called up the water department and they said the firemen were probably cleaning out the hydrants, and that I should turn on the outside faucets for ten minutes to clean out the line. This seemed to work cleaning out the water. Then the freaking water pressure dropped. I'm not talking "just a little bit." I'm talking you can't wash your hands after you flush the toilet because the water coming out of the faucet is a stream the diameter of a drinking straw. Even on full stream the shower massage won't work, and you can't run the faucet or flush the toilet if you're in the shower. The water coming out of the kitchen faucet droops down instead of coming out straight. It makes cleaning out James' catheter a fat pain in the ass, too. And I have to clean it out three times a day, and the catch containers, too. If you call up the water department, they will tell you this is your fault and you must have a leak. Miserable, miserable. At least Will Trent was on again, although it won't be back until April now, due to stupid basketball. The same goes for Elsbeth, which I'm still on the fence about. She's almost too flaky. In better news, this weekend was the semiannual book sale sponsored by the Cobb County library. It was cold when I got there Friday when they opened; I went back Saturday when James was at his club meeting. Day 1 and then Day 2 hauls.   Once Upon a Crime are crime stories based on fairy tales. America's Jubilee is about the 50th anniversary of American independence (1826). Raising Cubby is partially research for a child character I'm writing. Joy Adamson's Africa is a collection of her art—people who've read her wildlife books forget she was a trained artist—including four absolutely gorgeous portraits of native African people in traditional dress. We had been noticing since it got cold that the batteries on James' power chair were discharging rather quickly. It seemed to go away during warm weather, so we didn't worry about it much, but in the last couple of weeks it seemed that his usual speed, "3," appeared to be slower than he was used to. Thursday during shopping the batteries were half drained just from a trip through Lidl and Publix. So James looked up to see if any of the Batteries+ stores had those batteries in stock. Turned out the one on the corner of Roswell and Wieuca did, so we went out there Sunday to get them replaced. We did not get the names of the two guys that helped us, but, wow, you had to see the work they had to do to get those batteries out! James looked up a video on YouTube and the process seemed very simple: remove the front cowling and footplate by depressing the silver buttons on each side of the latch, unplug the batteries from the chair, then pull them out, take off the leads, attach the leads to the new batteries, slide the batteries back in, reattach wiring to the chair, and replace the front cowling. The videographer did note that putting the front cowling back on was "kinda fiddly." Well, the front cowling was "fiddly" and it took a good ten minutes before they figured it out, but it wasn't the only thing they had trouble with. Both batteries are rectangular blocks, no curves. The batteries they pulled out were swollen and distended on the top and the sides! (These were the original factory batteries.) The guys had to get on the floor and pull on the strap around the batteries and brace with their feet to get them out! It was a tight fit going back in, too, but not like that! They were a great couple of guys and James has already left excellent reviews for them on the survey and also did a Google review of the specific store. Labels: book sales, books, chores, events, power chair, television, water » Sunday, March 03, 2024
The Gathering and The Innocent
The highlight of this week was the second annual occurrence of Marietta: The Gathering. This is a fannish event held on the Square in Marietta. No celebrities or anything, but there was a "dealer's room" in booths out on the street—I found a new kitsune pin! and James bought me the cutest fox pin—and a Star Wars presence and lots of attendees (and their dogs) in costumes or t-shirts. We stayed an hour or two, also went to the candy store to get James some sugar-free candy and to the British store. Discovered a new Italian market/café is going to open downtown!The preceding day was cold and rainy, so we stayed in all day and James made biscuits in the air fryer. They were so good! I spent the day reading Barbara Feldon's book Getting Smarter, some about her time on Get Smart, but mostly about her relationship with Lucien Feldon, who turned out not at all what he portrayed himself to Barbara. I was surprised that she believed some of his wilder stories. In other news, I posted the conclusion of a fanfiction, finally put up the knife holder I bought for James (we mounted it on a cupboard door, having no other space for it), and went to Sam's Club and bought some nice sirloin steaks. Labels: events, food, shopping, television, weather, writing » Sunday, February 25, 2024
Saying Farewell
On Saturday, exactly a month since she passed away, Lin Butler's memorial service was held. There were memories, of course, from her husband and sons, and from family members, several more from friends. We cried a little, smiled and chuckled at some memories, hugged each other, and greeted some friends we hadn't seen in awhile, including Carrie, Bill Gould, and Trudy and Al.Juanita did a lovely thing: she collected hundreds of beautiful shells from the beach, cleaned and dried them, and left them out for people to take as souvenirs; not only that, she made up special bags of shells for individual friends. It was the sweetest thing. After the service a big group of us went to eat and chat more at O'Charley's. A odd thing happened at the funeral home. I was surprised when we were seated in the rear to be next to a big highboy dresser that was the spitting image of the one my mother and dad had, complete with the fan pattern and slim legs with rounded "feet," same color. It was part of the set we had to sell (well, Queen Anne really wasn't either of our styles) after my mom died to get money to live on. My godmother's brother gave us cash for it. We had no safe place to keep it, so we stored it under the dog's crate. When we'd take money out for groceries we'd call it "the first national bank of Willow." Oddly enough when I walked to the opposite side of the reception hall, they also had a glass-fronted secretary that was identical to the one my godmother had. It was as if Mom and Padina were there to comfort me. Otherwise it was a quiet week. Now that I had a new battery for my hedge clipper, I finished trimming down that bush at the front of the street that was obstructing James' (and, I'm certain, everyone else on the street!) view when making a left turn. We found the Indian grocery store that Jerry recommended, Patel's, which is near the old Sears at Town Center. A whole aisle of spices! And of course lots and lots of I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't had a screaming headache. Ever since the trees started blooming my headaches have bloomed right along with them. The podiatrist looked at James' toe again. I have been unsatisfied by its healing progress. She agreed with me that it wasn't healing as well as she wanted it to, either; all it seems to be doing is developing a callus around the soft spot. She didn't think it was infected, though; she told me to stop using the betadyne (some day I will discover what podiatry's "thing" with betadyne is) and replace it with metahoney. » Sunday, January 28, 2024
When All Was at Its Calmest...
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. |
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