Sunday

A lazy morning. It's another cold one. Third in a row with upper 30s, low 40s. Supposed to be warmer today, and then not quite as cold tonight. We've had a fire going every morning, which is so nice. 

The work week was nice and short, quiet, low-key. Heavy on patients on Tuesday, but since there were four of us, it was no problem. Everyone brought some kind of goodies, every day, for everyone to share. There was Christmas music playing all day on the radio, and the office is decorated. There were little stocking presents for us each day on our desks. 

On Wednesday  which was the last day in the office, we all opened the actual stockings with our names on them--little gifties, treats,  just fun little things.  J drove to an organic honey farm that day,  and bought a gallon to replenish our container we'd brought from Oregon. 

That day BIL came over with a surprise: keys to a storage unit, for J, to store the wood for the windows (when hurricanes are predicted).  It all doesn't fit in our shed, so he's been storing it outside, wrapped in plastic. But with the humidity here...the wood rots fairly quickly.  So Sis and BIL gifted J with an actual storage shed, for which they pay the monthly fee.  So generous, so thoughtful. We are so touched. Plus, the storage shed is just across the street from our little neighborhood.  BIL will come this week to help J load it all up and take it over there.

Thursday: since he'd gotten his SS check we did our finances, paying our first mortgage check to the new company, cleaned the house to within an inch of its life (what the hell does that phrase mean??), and then headed out to pick up some last minute things. The weather was predicted to be really bad--windy, rainy, cold. So we (and everyone else apparently) hit the stores. It was a crazy trip.  But it was fine--people were in good moods.

At home it was still so warm I opened the slider. The wind was strong, but it felt good. MissS came over bringing the DVD player she'd got on sale, one for us and one for her. She hooked that up, and we watched our Christmas movies: White Christmas, The Polar Express, and then Meet Me in St Louis. 

Normally she comes over Christmas morning and we have cinnamon or orange-glazed rolls while we open presents.  This time we did all that Christmas Eve. So we paused the movie, and had breakfast-for-dinner. J made us cheese omelets, sausages, and cinnamon rolls, after which we opened our presents.  

It was the perfect evening. No news, just Christmas Eve joy, family, happy times. And the bad weather never came. We got some rain later during the night, and the wind kept up, but it was nothing as serious as predicted.

Friday morning, Christmas, we tried to sleep in,  but with three dogs and a cat yowling for breakfast that really doesn't ever happen...so instead J fed them all and later we both walked them for their usual morning walk. It was cold. I mean,cold.   Like 37 degrees. And windy. I wore my big ol' winter coat and gloves, even. 

Later we went to Sis' house, bringing desserts,  and some little goodies. Halfway there I realized I'd forgotten the deviled eggs, so we had to turn around and go home to get them...and  since we were on the highway taking the "fastest" way, I missed the exit we needed to go home. It was a fiasco. I felt so awful, so stressed. 

We ended up being an hour late. But all worked out well. Sis was feeling some stress/anxiety too, so it was okay that we all (Bro and SIL, MissS) didn't all arrive at the same time. After a glass of wine I felt a lot better!

The rest of the evening was perfect. I feel so blessed that we are all on the "same side" politically, and there are none of the tensions that could make these gatherings unbearable. No one has an alcohol or drug problem, no one is rude or hostile, no one is aggressive or defensive, no one is  "in your face". All of the afore-mentioned are what I was used to for so many years, and I never get over the sheer gratitude that I no longer live that way. 

It was a fabulous meal, and we had a great time. Sis has a lovely large space both in the kitchen and in the living room. With a gorgeous fireplace that was the final touch to make it homey and welcoming. 

We left around 9 or so, and collapsed at home. Yesterday, Saturday, I had my AlAnon meeting. The person who is taking over the Treasurer position and I agreed on where to meet physically tomorrow to do the handover of the books and money. Our whole meeting was as always so helpful and supportive. Another person, the third one in the meeting,  has been diagnosed with Covid, so this was another reminder that it's raging out there. He has been doing all the right things, too. Fortunately he has a mild case, it appears, and he is quarantining.

I had wanted to  share the kerfuffle which happened earlier that week between J and MissS, except that during the  meeting J was within earshot, just 10 feet away; I didn't  feel quite comfortable going over it where he could hear me. (We  have gone over it and over it, multiple times. And if I'd discussed it at the meeting he would have thought I was still upset over it. I'm not, but I wanted to share how I'd used some AlAnon tools.) 

The rest of the day J and I were both exhausted. We had no energy. I wanted to nap, and got one later in the afternoon, but did not wake up feeling refreshed.  We had a quiet, easy dinner, and played a game of Chess. We watched an old Star Trek movie, and he fell asleep during it. 

Tomorrow morning I'm doing the AlAnon final bookkeeping before meeting with the new Treasurer, and then I have a meeting with my Sponsee for a walk on the beach.

The rest of the week? Well, I have some goals, some things I'd like to get done.  But since I don't have to work the entire week, I'm looking at it as a stretch of free time. What a blessing!

TYG

 

 

Sunday

 Phew, what a morning it's been already. 

It's after 11, and I'm just now sitting down. I didn't sleep well at all, lying awake for 2 hours, and then fell back to sleep for a bit, being awakened by Morgan Freeman. He is the voice on an app I have reminding me to take my medications --this time it was for 6:30am. (He also reminds me at 11:15, and 5:30, and 9pm.)

So I got up, and then started in immediately to finish baking the batch of cookies I'd not been able to finish yesterday. When that was done I tackled the fudge I'd made the day before also which was cooling in the fridge. Man, that was tough--as in, I now have an immense quantity; and it was very hard to cut into squares. J helped with that, then I packaged it all up into separate baggies and froze most of it. Some I will take to work tomorrow. 

Then I got sidetracked in the bedroom: I put the clean clothes away, and noticed the windows needed cleaning. When I tried to open a window to air out the room --it's a beautiful warm morning right now--I noticed the curtains were sadly in need of washing. So dusty I can't remember when I washed them last. So I pulled them down and am washing all of them. J got roped into volunteered to wash the outside windows while I did the interior. Amazing how bright that room is with no curtains and clean windows!

Then he got the bug and vacuumed both cars, and went through all his photos to pick out some for a granddaughter (who requested something special from us in her Christmas card), and he emptied the dishwasher from last night and loaded the stuff we hadn't been able to wash (I was very busy yesterday baking two batches of cookies and the fudge, plus dinner) and restarted the dishwasher.

He's also decided he just cannot build the model airplane after all. This is the one he has been working on since summer of 2019.  He has been struggling with it off and on, and finally accepted the limitations of his poor arthritic hands.  He cannot physically manage the delicacy of putting the model pieces together.  So he called his model enthusiast son, and talked with him. That son was saddened to learn his dad just can't do it, but excited to receive the gift of the partially built airplane.  J will package it all up, and ship it, some time after Christmas.  He's frustrated at himself, but also terribly relieved that he's made this decision.

He finally got into the dermatology office and had the skin cancer removed. That's a relief. 

Wednesday I was driving home, and turned into our street. The car started jerking/bumping, and then it stopped doing that, and I drove a bit further, and it did it again. I made it to our driveway, and had J come and listen to it.  He drove it a bit and agreed it needed a visit to our mechanic. 

The next day he took me to work in the Honda. Then he drove the Nissan to the mechanic, left it there and walked home! It's a mile and a third.  Then he walked the dogs, another mile. Fortunately the rain started later that day; so he picked me up from work and we drove to pick up the repaired Nissan.   A failed coil (one of 4) cost $214; and spark plugs were replaced.  Let's hope this was an unusual occurrence. But in any case, I'm very grateful we had the money in savings to repair it.

During the week he got started on painting the ceiling in the sun room. I cannot believe the difference!! It  looks wonderful. The room is a mess of course, but it will be worth it.  It will apparently need a white coat of paint over the blue, and then another blue coat because of the discoloration of the wood above which is bleeding through.  Still, the pale blue is so pale it's almost not blue. 

Friday was payday and I went shopping alone after work that day to pick up most of the last of the stuff I need. I still need to wrap everything. Then J and I also did some shopping yesterday after my AlAnon meeting. I mainly wanted a new dog bed for Sophie, and found a great one.  I also went to one specific store for one particular item; I got everything else on my list there and got home to discover I'd forgotten the one item I went in for. Sigh. 

Not too much else to report. This coming week LadyDoc is gone, so that alone will make it more peaceful.  We only work three days and then we are off work. I don't have to go back until January, because my doc is gone. 

I am lucky...and so grateful.

TYG

 

Sunday

 Sunday again!  J has just come back from walking the dogs. It's a cool foggy morning. 

Not cool enough for a fire, although we've had one for the last several mornings. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were all definitely cold, in the low 40s, and one morning it was 37 degrees. Brrr! I love having the outside temperature gauge inside my new car. I've always wanted one. 

Yesterday Sis came by with our first joint Misfits Market box. This is a delivery service of veggies and fruit that doesn't look pretty enough for stores to buy, but is perfectly good produce, at an excellent price. She also brought coffee and munchkins from Dunkin...what a treat!  

So we went through the box and divided this up, and are well-pleased. Today we will be using some of our goodies. I heard Sis was making white bean kale soup with some of her share. We are planning a soup, and I want to try a stir-fry. 

Then I had my AlAnon meeting. Afterwards we had a small business meeting, and someone finally agreed to take over my Treasurer position as of January. I'm so relieved. It's been three years, and I am ready to hand it off. No one stepped up to take over the Group Representative position though, and so that will be interesting, waiting to see what happens. That is also a 3 year term.  I wouldn't mind doing it, except for the requirement that I'd have to miss one meeting a month to attend a District meeting, which happens to meet at the exact same time. I'm not willing to do that. 

After that I went to have my bangs trimmed, and then came home to relax after cleaning house. I did all my Christmas cards, got them out in the mail with gift cards to two of my two granddaughters.   

J and I watched a couple of Christmas movies.  Totally enjoyable, so well-done. "Christmas Chronicles", on Netflix; two of them. Made by the same people who directed Harry Potter, so a lot of fantasy, and gorgeous sets, great story, and a couple of plot twists.

The work week was interesting. Monday we all got a Christmas card on our desks with an invite to a Christmas lunch "catered" by a local fancy restaurant. Employees only. In this case, "catered" meant LadyDoc drove to the restaurant and brought back the food in aluminum packaging. Then we all lined up and served ourselves, eating at our own desks.

It just happened to be the day I brought some homemade peanut butter krispie fudge to work to share (before J ate all of it!).  So there was that to munch on, in addition to their  desserts of pumpkin cheesecake, and zucchini bread.  It was all very good food. But  the mood was bittersweet, kind of, as LadyDoc had made her announcement the day before.

She decided that as of Wednesday CoworkerCMA would move to the back to learn the Procedure room, and two of the procedure RNs would rotate again. (Not her favorite RN, mind you, but only the other two would move.)  

CoworkerRN is back to her regular job, having finally mostly healed from her hand surgery in September.   LadyDoc did not bother to inform my Doc of this; he learned of this with the rest of us on Monday afternoon. Again, so RUDE of her.

What the doc doesn't know is that although she is planning on this to last 3 months (I heard this through the grapevine), RN just had an appt Friday afternoon with an ortho to discuss her long put-off knee replacement surgery.  So this might change things.  We'll see.

Meanwhile CoworkerCMA is thrilled to be learning the procedure area. She's the only one who seems excited by all this cross-training. The rest of us are definitely not happy; we have all chosen to work in our particular areas because that's what we are interested in and trained for specifically. 

And the front office person still is working alone; the HR dept still has not managed to find a replacement receptionist, and it's been 3 months. This poor woman is checking in patients for 3 doctors, answering all phone calls, taking messages, and scheduling all follow up appts and procedures. Not to mention handling all the money, and dealing with other offices' referrals to us. 

I would absolutely go insane in that job. This woman, I'll dub her MCSS, used to come in every morning smiling and cheerful. Ever since her other co-worker transferred out of there 3 months ago (because after 12 years she finally couldn't stand dealing with LadyDoc anymore), she walks in every morning flat-faced, resigned, already stressed. I don't blame her; I do not know how she is doing this.  (I learned she also recently took a second job working nights at the hospital.  She does this because she has a son in college, and she and her husband are paying for this. I cannot imagine where she is finding the strength, the energy to deal with this. )

Meanwhile the rest of us dealt with the cross-train switch on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. The RN working next to me now is an Eeyore kind of person. She always sees the worst, imagines the worst. It's hard to not get sucked in to her depression. She too is dealing with stress; she has an older husband at home who is seriously ill, and an autistic grown-up daughter with other health issues who lives with them. 

Still, you have to put that aside when you come to work, and focus on the job. She can be bitter. Guess she's been "given to me" ( we sit so close our chairs bump into each other) for reasons I will learn. When she is in a good mood, her stories are hysterically funny; she has a very infectious laugh, and you can't help laughing when you hear her. 

The office is decorated with Christmas stuff now, and that has always put LadyDoc in a great mood; every day she brings more stuff to set up. She has CoworkerCMA do all that. They are still buddy/buddy; I was reminded by two people in the office not to trust her because of what she might say to LadyDoc. Sad. 

Meanwhile, J has been at home dealing with Christmas decorations here, working on the outside stuff. We bought more tiny twinkle lights for outside the front windows and all along the row of palms, and up and around our wrought iron porch supports which are wrapped with garlands now. It all looks beautiful.

He ended up having to buy new paint after all; our old paint had solidified in the can, and refused to be broken up despite heroic efforts on his part to mix it up. 

He still hasn't been able to get the skin cancer removed; we received an official denial from his insurance, saying the derm office hadn't requested a prior auth. So J drove to their office after multiple phone calls and having left several messages with no response. He spoke to someone there face to face, who promised "immediate action".  That was Thursday. He has had no answer, no call back. Meanwhile he is more and more anxious about this skin cancer. You wouldn't think this is such a big deal, that they deal with this on a fairly regular basis. Someone somewhere dropped the ball.

On the good news front, Chewy once again has demonstrated their awesomeness in a series of emails.  Our flea meds were approved and shipped, and I got a notice they'd been delivered---except they weren't. Both J and I were home at the time of the supposed delivery. Nada. When I contacted them, they apologized and sent out a replacement package (which should be arriving tomorrow). 

The next day a neighbor three houses away brought over the package from Chewy.  These neighbors are new, having just moved here in September. They promptly loaded their driveway and lawn with Trump flags and signs, and two huge pick up trucks, and even a boat. I will admit they have also decorated their house and lawn with awesome Halloween, and now Christmas stuff. All the Trump stuff is still up, with the Santas, and a sleigh and reindeer, lighted trees, wrapped porch lights, the whole bit. Interesting.

This week my cousin posted on FB that her dad would have been 88 on the 9th; she shared some memories, and a photo. It sparked some memories for me too, and I felt so sad. She misses him still, so dearly.  He was only 49 when he died. It made me more grateful for my own dad who is also 88. 

Then I got an email from my dad, mentioning that my godfather David who is also 88, is basically in comfort care, terminally ill with a cancer he's been dealing with. This was new to me.  Dad forwarded some emails and a recent photo of David, which just touched me so much; I don't know if it's the time of the year, or Lottie's recent death, or the staggering number of deaths in the country from Covid, or the reminders of Terry's death, and now the probability that my dad won't be coming to FL after all, until there's a vaccine. All of it just piled up. It's just so overwhelming at times.  I felt so much grief. So hard to stay positive. 

J learned that his second oldest daughter had a stroke Thursday. She is only in her 50s. She is now going through physical therapy, and has quit smoking, and has to change her diet, etc. It was quite a scare, quite a wake-up call. J was terrified; she almost never calls him, but she called and left a msg for him Saturday morning. He didn't get this until the afternoon because his phone was charging.  They had a catch-up phone call yesterday, and reassured each other. J fully recovered from his except his right leg drags just a bit when he is tired.

And finally, I got a bad scare Thursday. I noticed casually at work that I had what looked like a scrape on my forehead hairline...it bothered me but I had a busy day and couldn't take any time to really examine it. When I got home it was hurting more so I had J look at it too, and he agreed it looked like a scrape, a scab which was beginning to harden. I had no idea what could have happened, as I didn't remember bumping into anything.

During the evening it began hurting more and more. At bedtime after removing my contacts I looked at it more closely in my mirror. To my horror it was a tick, this time standing up off my skin, filling with blood. I was immediately sickened. I could hardly remain calm, but I called J and both of us tried to remove it with my tweezers. It was remarkably difficult to grasp and took several tries. Finally we agreed it was gone, and cleaned the area with hydrogen peroxide, and then put some antibiotic cream on it. 

During this I was so sickened and disgusted. I kept feeling completely shocked that this thing had been there all day and I hadn't paid enough attention to it. Where in hell did it come from?? I have no idea. I looked up info on Google of course, because my dad has been dealing Lyme for years off and on. We agreed it must have been a very small deer tick. So small that when we were pulling it, it was less than half the size of a grain of rice.

Still, I went to our company's Urgent Care the next day, Friday. I left work an hour early, and fortunately it's just downstairs. There was no one else being seen so I got right in. The doc examined me and relieved me immensely; yes, it's all clear, all bits removed, very little chance of infection despite the size of the bruising on my head (it's about a half inch square), but all things considered better to put me on doxycycline for two weeks. 

What a week. 

Sis will be hosting Christmas Day dinner at her big house. I'm so looking forward to that. Bro and SIL will also be there and of course MissS. MissS  will probably come over Christmas morning so we can do our own gift exchange here. It will be a great day...

I have the whole week off afterwards, and am really looking forward to that. We're not even going anywhere; it will just be nice to not have to work. 

TYG

Sunday

 It's a good morning here. Such a breathtakingly beautiful day, just perfect weather: stunning blue skies, sunshine, little wind, upper 60s. Birds everywhere. I refilled the bird feeders, so that might explain it...

It did get cool last night, cool enough for a fire this morning.  Fortunately J has prepared us, and he has plenty of wood.

All except one of my packages arrived this week, so that was exciting. Tuesday ,  Thursday, and Friday there were packages waiting for me when I got home. Some are just ordinary things we use anyway (vitamins, dog shampoo, cleaning wipes for electronics, a mouse pad) and some were for Christmas (decorations). I remembered again  that we didn't have an angel to top the tree, so I've ordered that.

Yesterday I chaired my AlAnon meeting, and that went well. Fifteen people, dear friends all. So good to see everyone. I get such comfort and support from them.

Afterwards J and I went to Target for toy shopping. My office is donating toys and food to the PortOrange PD for their sponsorship of 30-50 families. So choosing toys is fun, as long as we don't have to wrap and ship them!   There was a limit of $20 to spend.  Then we got a few groceries, and I picked out some stuff for my co-workers' Christmas stockings at work. I'm only doing snack stuffs this year. That made my decisions a lot easier, and far less expensive.

Then we dropped off Sophie's new written rx for her trazodone and came home. We each had a quick lunch, and then he napped and I read. Later we put up the tree, and some decorations. Today we'll put up more both inside and outside, and MissS and I will decorate the tree.

Friday was a great day at work; only my doc was in, and once we were done with his six patients he left, and we all just waited out the day til 4:30.  J had done some shopping, and taken Sophie to our vet.  

When we'd tried to re-order the flea medication from Chewy,  the vet refused, saying she needed an office visit!  So we tried a couple of different vets, thinking now would be a good time to change vets and get established somewhere else. Surprisingly, two of the three are not accepting new patients. And we never got  a return call from the third.  J finally just called our usual vet and got her in. 

Weather here was so different every day. Monday day it was raining so hard J couldn't take the dogs for their walk. But by the time I got home it was fine, so we did it then. 

Tuesday  and Wednesday it was so cold we all needed actual winter clothes: jeans, long sleeved t-shirts, and I actually dug out my old heavy sweatshirt on top of that.  I'd turned the heat on in the house instead of the AC, and J had a fire going in the kitchen fireplace. I wore a  long-sleeved t-shirt under my scrubs to work, and even with my labcoat that office stayed even colder than usualboth Tuesday and Wednesday. However, J and I  both enjoyed the cooler weather, and were caught off guard by  how cold it was so early in the season. I heard from several patients that this was a sign of a cooler winter ahead.

J also cut some wood for CoWorkerCMA. I brought it to her on Wednesday morning and she was able to have a fire in her outdoor chiminea. She texted me a photo of it, and tagged me on Facebook, showing it burning nicely  that night. She was so thrilled, and it made J so happy to do that.

On Tuesday J got a call from the hearing aid place. They were unable to repair his  hearing aid, so had decided to provide him with a whole new set,  for no extra charge (other than what we had already paid for the repair, and with using his insurance benefit which is $500 per ear).  So he went the next afternoon to be fitted with the new set, and was utterly astonished at what he was hearing.  Such a better pair than even the ones he's had for two years. He is just thrilled. We are so blessed.

And also on Tuesday there was a FedEx envelope with the check for the money we got at the closing. I took a picture for posterity...but we put that money in the bank, and when it cleared we had fun.   

We paid off both credit cards in full. And made the last payment on the dentures. And paid an unexpected bill for what the insurance didn't cover on his stress test ($150).   And then put the rest in savings.

Friday was my payday, so we paid our usual utility bill, and another unexpected bill  for what the insurance didn't cover on the  Holter monitor, for $50, and the usual monthly Amazon bill, and the pest control. And we were done.  So we are now debt-free. Except for the mortgage.  We have our usual monthly bills, but those are roughly the same every month, and not unexpected. We can plan for those. Such a weight off our shoulders. 

J has removed all the trim in the sunroom. He has the paint ready to go on after he cleans the ceiling.  Once that is done, then he installs the trim. It's starting on week 3, so I've lost my bet as to how long this will take, clearly.  

The saddest news was the loss of my stepmother Lottie last weekend.  She's been in an ALF for Alzheimer's patients for 2 and a half years now, very well cared for in a nice place near her sons. .  My dad took care of her  for a few years before he just couldn't do it anymore; she needed more intensive care and time than he could do.  

 Unfortunately the ALF is in CT.  She was moved there by her sons, leaving my dad alone in VT.  He was asked to not speak or contact her after she left, which just sounds unbearably painful. I know she didn't recognize him anymore, but still. How do you just stop seeing, stop talking, stop having any contact at all with your partner after 21 years? I don't believe this was a good policy on the ALF's part. So sad, in a family which is already stressed beyond belief. 

So my dad's experiencing a lot of different emotions. There's relief, sadness, grief, a sense of finality. I know he loved her very much, and they were very happy together. I know he did a wonderful job of caring for her in sickness and in health, as long as he could. He went above and beyond. He's been a wonderful, thoughtful, and loving partner. I remember seeing him bring my mother coffee every morning, and so I grew up thinking that's what marriage was. 

I so wish we could all spend some time together here in FL.

 

Ok...J is on his Zoom call with his kids and all their partners. It's incredibly noisy, and I cannot concentrate. 

TYG