More of the same

 The glasses I ordered from GlassesUsa never arrived, and I received a refund and a note that says the frames I chose are discontinued.  I ordered a pair from GlassShop, and I like the frames much better, plus they are cheaper too.  Now to wait again.

I got a nice cookbook from R for the KitchenAid mixer.  The only thing that is prevalent is the ingredients which are an entire page or more, and include ingredients that I have never heard of.  In fact, I ordered two cookbooks for the KitchenAid, hopefully they will be more user friendly.  And they have photos of most dishes which is a big help when it is an unknown.  I just wish the books were spiral bound, the better to lay flat on the counter.

R liked her "name" necklace although the clasp is wee tiny and C had to fasten when she tried it on.  She said the staff at work all have ones like it, the same thing I noticed at the rehab place. C liked the drone with camera he got from me, something to amuse himself.  He also got a cookbook for World of Warfare, real recipes that reference the ingredients found in the game.  

I bought a plain silver chain to go with the turtle pendant from Etsy.  Of course there is no where that I can wear it except here in the bedroom.  I have an appt. at Claire's tomorrow to get my ears pierced (again).  The original piercing was too crooked and I hope for a symmetrical placement this time.  I have all these earrings I cannot wear, I plan to cull the ones that are too juvenile, donate them to Goodwill or whatever.  I can date these from when I was first able to wear pierced earrings, back in 1972.  How old these are!  Even the ones I wore for my wedding in 1970 were clip-on.

That is about the post for now, hope everyone has a fun New Years Eve and I will post again in a week or so.

Bye!

Home at Last

 I got home last week, so at least I will get to be home for Christmas.  C is doing my infusions of Ab (daptomycin) and I won't go back to the nursing home for any reason I can think of.  

I did get the gifts I ordered for C and R, although the gift for R I think I ordered twice... oh well.  I hope they like them, but at least they will have something to rip into on Christmas day.  I'm not sure if either of them read my posts here, but I won't reveal what I finally got them.  C put up the mini-tree in my room and it looks festive, if only 2 feet tall.  By next year I should be able to go upstairs and have the 6 foot tree to decorate.  Not to mention going to prepare a yummy menu, which I enjoy.  

I ordered a pair of glasses (why is it called a pair when it is only one?) from GlassesShop.  I have a card from my current glasses with the 'script, but not the D.P. so I hope they are OK.  I looked endlessly on Glasses USA web site, and even after going through pages and pages I couldn't find a single pair I liked.  With GlassesShop I picked the third one it showed, and the price was a lot cheaper too.  The web page was a little hard to enter the price, but C helped me.  He also helped me wrap his gift, it takes two hands just to manage the tape.

I saw my primary doctor this morning, and he gave me a script for Ambien which I desperately needed.  I borrowed some from C which I can now "repay" as soon as we get to the drug store.  I will try to sleep without taking any, but if I am thrashing around in bed it is good to have a fall-back plan.  It irks the crap out of me that narcotics are so hard to obtain even when they are a  legit need for a patient, thanks to the black market for addicts.  Dr. Pogue (my surgery doctor) was busted in a sting operation back when I needed knee replacement, I hear he is doing time elsewhere, hope they keep a close watch on his supplies.

I remember when I was working for Dr. A(sshole) at his first time at the U for a lab of his own.  I had scheduled the days from Christmas Eve to the second day of January to be on vacation, but it didn't sit well with him (too bad).  I diffidently informed him that everyone (with a few exceptions) took those days off, and that if he chose to work then, he won't get much done if he was there since all the support personnel (receiving, radiation safety, animal quarters, maintenance, cafeteria, mail room,  and so on ) were also gone.  He sniffed and said that it was not that way at Stony Brook (where he was working when they hired him at WVU) and he would work except for Christmas day alone.  I told him he wouldn't find it easy to do so.  When I returned in January he admitted he found it useless to be there, no package delivery, no maintenance help, no custodial staff, and so on.  I bit my tongue and refrained from saying "told you so". 

I also told him it was a mistake to piss off the maintenance workers, they found ways to get back at whomever was responsible.  Sure enough he ticked them off and then couldn't get them to install an electrical outlet for his -80 degree freezer.  The fool even put it in writing.  I took pity on him and asked one of my friends in maintenance to do it.  

No-one should ever make an enemy of maintenance or secretary people.  I used to bat the breeze with either of these groups, and I even brought homemade cookies now and then.

As for me, I am so very glad to be home, and I am sorry I thought I needed to be in a skilled nursing facility to get my antibiotics, when C is a pro doing the process.  I hated the nursing place, they had so many poor CNAs I can't believe they kept their certification.

So here is my wish for all my readers, to have a great Christmas or other special day, and to wish you all the best for the New Year with no strife or fighting, and wish that you reach out to those in need who may be alone when you are  planning your time with family.  

Merry Christmas!

 I had a strange photo call earlier today.  It was from N' s cousin in Oregon and he wanted to talk to N.  He was very surprised to learn that N died 7 years ago, I guess the family in the Oregon/ Washington never got the news.  He was a name in the family tree, and mainly what he wanted was Susans number; she had gone to school with the girls in Oregon, so at least she would know who he was.  I will call Susan this weekend to let her know about my surgery.

I will bug C to get a list of meds.  There is a partial list on the computer but he doesn't want to use it for some reason.

My foot is clearly very painful today and the swelling is very prominent.  So this will be a short note.  Maybe I can write after I get home, 4 days most likely.  

Is it possible I have let this blog slide for so long?

Well, I guess I have.

I have been in the hospital or in a rehab facility for three months, and only was released last Monday to go home.  I still can't walk and my son still needs to take care of me for meals, and for bathroom duty and so on.  I am awaiting scheduling for another surgery on my ankle, and then more rehab.  I dread both of these.  

But anyway I will try to do better here.  

The mail was an enormous pile, even though C winnowed all the junk stuff, and paid the most urgent bills too.  As Christmas approaches the catalogs are present in increasing numbers, but I just pitch them all.  I can always go on-line to find a gift, assuming I can think of something to gift C and R.  So far I am clueless.  Especially for R whom I haven't seen in 2 months or more, even though her work place is a few blocks from the hospital and the rehab places.  

 I have two therapists that both come twice each week.  The exercises they give me to do are limited by my foot, which is non weight bearing.  I would need to hop like a bunny rabbit to do them, and I'm a little heavy to do that.  I can't even cross the bedroom, which is very large, and very full of wheelchair, rollator, bedside commode, desk, file cabinet, and so forth.  I would like to get to the desk.  Meanwhile I work on a card table with my laptop.

Don't ever take the ability to walk for granted.

My roommates were a mixed bag -- but all the same in one way.  They would call for "a nurse" (even though the floor staff was a CNA).  They would call LOUDLY "help" or "I need you" or the like, never using the nurse call button, and when one would appear and ask "what do you need?" The patient would say,"I don't know".  My last roommate, the one with the broken pelvis, would haul herself into a wheelchair and push out to the hall to waylay a CNA and be put back into bed for her next go-round.  If they moved the wheelchair out of reach (or locked the wheels) she would crab her way on foot.  This would continue for the entire night, only giving me rest when the CNAs would take her out to the nurse' station for an hour or two.  Her daughter would give her a stern lecture and that night it would start again.  I can't imagine the pain the pelvis would give her, or how she got any rest, but still she would haul herself out of bed.  I think she just wanted company, but the place was chronically understaffed and they were too busy to sit with her to keep her in bed.  The goal was for her to mend somewhat so she could have surgery.  She was 94.

 I think the main blessing I got at home is the freedom to nap whenever I want.

Well, that is it for now, I will try to keep posts coming more regularly, even though there is little to write.  Bye for now!

 

Oooops

Well, I found my D40 Nikon camera... my daughter 'borrowed' it when she was here last time.  She took it on a road trip to Lake Erie and said the camera was terrific.  I don't plan on getting it back, so I went on eBay and did a Buy It Now and got a D40X; What the difference is between the  D and the DX I haven't a clue.  Book on order...

The only thing I found lacking with this used camera is the 'door' that covers the in-and-out on the side, and I covered the gap with a piece of black electrical tape.  I can't tell it is there unless I am looking for it.  And a single cover is 1 1/2 inches long so a roll of tape will last a long time.

The other thing I need to do is wipe down the neck strap to get rid of the ooky on it.  I need to get somewhere to take photos that are other than my room, even a shrub would be an improvement.  I need to get in the habit of turning it OFF when I am done, a re-charge takes several hours and the second battery pack doesn't seem to last as long.  

I made an appt. with the ortho doctor to check out my ankle.  He is the one who set it several years ago, and he said to come back if I had any difficulty with it.  And golly boy here is the swelling that keeps me from wearing any shoe, only bedroom slippers.  There is not very much improvement at all other than that the scar has faded.  C noticed that I am walking on the side of my foot, which seems to make my shin ache.  If it is one thing...

When I called his office I got my numbers mixed up and called the dentist, I don't think that would work out, do you?

camera lore

 Well I have rethought the plan to sell this home and buy a new mobile home, and I have concluded I need to follow my original plan.  I cannot live in this one room for another 8 or or so years and have the same mental capacity I have now ).

I have been searching for two cameras that must be in this room somewhere. I found one (Nikon D2000) but the D40 is eluding me.  C says it will turn up eventually, but I have a no patience to wait for this.  I could, of course, buy another, they have dropped to nearly zero in price, but it is the principle of the thing.  And the first one has a data card with older photos I should have transferred to a permanent location other than leaving them on the camera.  Hindsight.

California King bedding

 After the fiasco with two, count them two, queen sized mattress pads that won't ever fit a california King mattress, I have been way more careful about what I order, especially size.  Today the CA king was inspected right away, since the Amazon window for returns is 30 days from receipt.  

Sesame shrimp for dinner, god I am stuffed.  The 'grub hub' is a great idea, fairly expensive, but saves a round trip to a restaurant.  They deliver whatever you order at whatever place you choose, including tip, and still heated.  Yum.

 

Happy Anniversary to me

 If N had still been alive this would have been our 53rd wedding anniversary; we were married in 1970 in Miami FL.   (Is my math right?)  It hardly seems possible now, with my contemporaneous classmates embarking on wedding number 3, if not more.  Suzanne H. was one of the latter, but it seems she did finally find her match.  They died (cancer) within a week of each other, so neither had to manage things alone.  It makes me sad to think of them as gone.

I still cannot figure out the $11,400 bill for ambulance trips, and judging by the lack of return phone calls neither of them can either.  If they send me a new invoice I will tackle the problem anew.  But meanwhile I won't fret this.

And as for the taxes, there doesn't seem to be enough documentation compared to the previous year.  I've sent letters explaining how my illness has impacted my bookkeeping, but there is no reply there either.  I think there is a gaping hole where Covid sent everyone home and then the 'all clear' did not bring them back.  With my luck the ones that work from home will never have to return $, while my situation grows  and grows in penalties.

Whine whine whine.  Enough.

Where have all the posts gone? Long time passing...

 Sigh.  If I actually get this post done, no one will be more surprised than me.  

Last week I finally got released from the hospital, Feb 11 through May 2 over at last.  I have been writing in my journal, it wasn't wise to leave my MacBook unattended while I was out of the room, but that is how I compensated.  If there is anyone still following this blog, thank you.  I will try to do better.

My son is a big help here in the house, keeping all the tasks done and visiting me too.  The place is pretty scrambled and I have been slowly putting it to rights.  The one thing that hasn't been done are, Sigh, the income taxes.  Several pieces vital to doing the taxes are not to be found, and we have had to ask for copies, not yet received.  Once the various bits are at hand, I will take the entire mess to H. R. Block.  No doubt we will have fines and penalties to cough up, but oh well.

And speaking of coughing, I came home with a doozy of a cold, my first in several years.  The cough is stubbornly resisting, and I have had very little sleep since last week.   Even the cat is disgusted with me, once I have a coughing attack she gives me a look, and then leaves me for quieter sleeping arrangements.   I have resorted to listening to an audible book on the Echo to pass the time, I never knew that could be done.  I am on Chapter 4 of a Dresden book, Peace talks  which is followed by Battleground, both by Jim Butcher.  I still didn't fall asleep, but maybe a sleeping pill is on tap for tonight.  The two books sound as if they could have been contemporary with the world today, minus the magic of Dresden.  I wish the authors would write quicker, the supply is vastly behind the demand, and it is particularly vexing when they add to a different story line that I don't like.  

Yesterday we had, at the behest of my PCP, an evaluation by Hospice for some home health care.  They decided I am not ill enough to warrant hospice, although the services they provide, cost free, would help C in the day-to-day tasks.  Still, good to know I'm not 'terminal' .

We had a welcome piece of mail today, checks from the purchaser of the 4 burial plots in Falls Church VA.  My folks bought them in 1951, why I can only guess, and had tried to sell them several times over the years.  I received an offer last year, but the entire deal 'stank' of a scam, and so it was.  This time the mortuary handled the transfer and it was done promptly and smoothly.  One less thing to worry over.  And the money will be a big help too.  The main thing I want done is a new door into the the garage, installed.  It should run around $1000; right now the lock won't engage except for wrestling the door around.   It has been this way for years and it bugs me every time I come and go into the garage.

I have tried to think of a topic here that is funny, but I am fresh out of humor.  

Oh, how about a RSVP to a wedding where the invite-ee responds, "Maybe next time".

Bye for now!