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Checked-In to My Cruise

I'm looking at a retirement place in Urbana. The shuttle driver on Friday pointed it out, but said that he heard that it was expensive. It looks very good though. They have a pool and all sorts of classes and other amenities.

Gracie got me up at 7:30 AM. It’s windy and slightly rainy out.

The cruise is telling me that it’s time to check in.

Fed us all. Hey, Bella is eating dry food! Nap time. Oliver was on my lap, but the dogs were wrestling, and he noped out onto a laundry basket. Napped again after waiting for the dogs to settle down.

Ordered some food. Both Bella and Oliver were on my lap. I told them that it was a little crowded.

I was about to take my shower when I decided to check into my cruise. They want a picture of me, so I need to shower and put my face on. Then I couldn’t find my glasses and freaked out. I finally took off my vest to take a shower and found them in the wrong pocket of my vest. Whew. I think that I want another pair just in case. By the way, my nice glasses came, but I don’t want to wear them around the house.

Eeek! Just remembered to add granola to my grocery order.

After all that, the cruise software said that they didn’t like my picture and would take one when I board the cruise. I’m checked in for 11:30 AM-12 PM, but I’m waiting for a chat representative to ask about soft drink and WiFi packages. I've been waiting a long time, so I'll probably try again later or tomorrow. The check-in time is good because I want lunch on the ship.

Ordered dog food and laundry detergent from Costco.

It’s going to be cold tonight, and I don’t want to turn the heat on, so I’m washing my comforters.

My grocery order keeps saying “Searching for a delivery driver”. Crap. I want my food!

I’m thinking that I will wash just one comforter tonight and another tomorrow. I need to get up early to drop the car off. I hope that the groceries come while it’s drying. I think that I’ll post too while it’s drying. Oh, and I need to get the litter boxes changed.

Got my food. Lily goes nuts for apple turnovers, kind of like her sister Zara. I dropped the carrot cake and Gracie took off with it but wasn't able to get the plastic shell open. Whew.

Now I need to feed the critters, change litter boxes, and put my clothes in the dryer.

Really really good

I have my legs back. Both of them. When I walk, there is a teensy weensy bit of discomfort. Under ordinary circumstances, I would hardly notice. I can get up from sitting without any pain. I get little stabs here and there and my back is now bitching about favoring the knee but mostly it's a miracle heal. So. I've been busy.

I washed my duvet cover and robe and a towel I used to mop up stuff and then put the duvet cover back on.

I went to UPS and did my Amazon returns and then popped into Safeway for some fried chicken.

Oh and I cleaned out the cat toy box. There is a big bag of cat toys in the storage area that will mostly likely go on to the trash room after it marinates there for a bit. The kitchen is clean and the dishwasher is loaded. I dug out a very old phone that long ago grew too old for updates so is not useful for much BUT, I did download an audiobook read by Angus King (the Scottish guy who put me to sleep last night) to it and it will stay charged up and by my bed.

Now it's baseball game time. Who is going to be Dodger fodder????

(no subject)

It's about 22°C/70°F today, and I would be thinking that that's unexpectedly warm for this time of year except that last year when my daughter, son in law, and granddaughters were here for Halloween it was at least this warm on at least one of the days they were here. In fact, looking back at my LJ for that time, it turns out that on 1st November it was about 25°C/80°F and the following day it was almost the same.

I've been making a batch of blueberry muffins every week in an effort to use up the packages of frozen blueberries in my freezer, since I don't really enjoy eating blueberries on their own but I quite enjoy them in muffins. So today I made a batch of eight, and there are still some blueberries in the freezer which I will probably have to throw away. I'm almost at the end of most of the other frozen foods, but there are one or two things I won't use because there isn't time.

Current Music: Hedwig and the Angry Inch soundtrack

(no subject)

Had some English Afternoon tea. I'm doing my laundry right now so it'll be finished before the power cut tomorrow. I have no clue what I'm going to do all day tomorrow or Thursday.

So weird

Last night, when I got into bed, I twisted my knee AGAIN! I was so pissed. I got out of bed and hobbled to the bathroom and put on a fresh lidocaine patch and went to bed and to sleep. At 3 am I woke up and got up to pee. The patch was still working. But then I could not go back to sleep. This rarely happens but by 4 I was over it. I've been listening to a novel set in Scotland read by a guy with a delicious Scottish accent. So I pulled out my phone and turned the book on and within minutes, I was asleep. I woke up briefly a couple of times and he was still going and I went right back to sleep. I had a bookmark set for when I stopped following the story so I can go back there and pick it up tonight, but for now I have a new sleep machine!!

This morning when I finally work up for good and got up, I discovered that my knee is so much better! Like 95%. It's wild. I'm going to walk around some this morning - like up and down the hall - to test it but I think it may well have turned the corner which is just so curious. Just night before last, it was incredibly painful to walk from the bed to the bathroom. And now...

But, to celebrate, I also woke up this morning with a lovely case of the runs. No cramps. No pain. Just runs. Hopefully the Imodium I took will nip it in the bud but weird. So weird.

I went to Amazon and clicked return for all of the knee braces. The one that I had been tempted to keep said to keep it and they would refund the money anyway. So I have one to try for volleyball which now, it looks like, I may well just be able to play on Tuesday.

The Mariners play again tonight. But, as

jo pointed out, it's a game fraught with peril. If they lose, they play again tomorrow. If they win, they have to play the fucking Dodgers in the World Series and the Dodgers will wipe the field with them - it won't be a fair fight. At least the game starts at 5 here. She has to wait til 8 to even see the first pitch. That really sucks.

I think I'll get dressed and go test my knee.

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Rainy Saturday

Gracie let me sleep until 8 AM, a whole extra hour. It’s dark out, and there are rumblings of thunder to the west of us. Today is an “at home” day.

I’m trying to find out the likely date for a hard freeze but no luck. I need to know for my dormant seeding.

The weather forecasters are predicting major thunderstorms.

Fed us all. I need more granola. Lily was showing me her belly. Oliver was picking on Lily. Gracie was barking. A quiet morning at home :)

Nap time. Had a nice nap. It’s supposed to rain soon, so I pulled in a recycling bin onto the basement stairs. Oliver went down in the basement. Had lunch. Decided to take another nap with the pooches. I couldn’t remember Timothée Chalamet’s name, so I got up and looked it up. I don’t remember why I was thinking about him. Had a nice nap. I’m trying to convince myself to take a shower (done).

I’ve been reading Tab Hunter’s autobiography. He was mentioned in the book about Dominick Dunne, and I got curious. It’s pretty interesting. Finished it. Now what? I bought a Kindle book about Cary Grant and another about someone who had paranoid schizophrenia. I'm not a Cary Grant fan, but most people's lives are interesting. That's why I like LJ (and DW).

It's pouring out. Gracie started to go out, but I wanted to go back in to get my raincoat, and I had a hell of a time getting her to come back in. After I put on my raincoat, I went back out with them. Gracie wanted to check whether it was raining on the side steps to the porch too. (Sorry, that would be a "yes".) Gracie ran around a lot, while Bella did one circuit of the house and noped out onto the porch. Gracie is soaked.

I'm thinking of doing dishes and starting laundry and going to bed early. I don't know why I'm so tired today.

slotted spoons are no good for soup

A big EFFYOU to Home Depot for running holiday commercials on Octo 14th. Traditionally HalloGivingsMas (Eatin' Season) does not commence until 8 am, Halloween morn. But now there will be people pressuring us to get the season open early.
No can do, my little sprouts. no can do. Gotta stay true to the spirit of the days. Oct 31, we rock.

Current Music: Scott McKenzie

(no subject)

In addition to having to be out all day Monday due to a power cut, I just found out earlier this afternoon I have to be out all day Thursday due to them letting off the damn fire alarms all day.

Missed one

I have my doll/monster knitting kit well organized now in one small basket. Everything I need. So I took it to Elbow Coffee this morning. I was sitting next to Gail. Gail knows how to knit so she watched me closely. I finished up one and she took it to her physical therapist but then I realized, I did not get a photo of it. That's only the second one who escaped the camera. Sigh.

I decided that a knee brace is not helping. I've now tried 3 different ones and none seem to do anything really and this last one made the knee feel worse. So, Amazon, you can have them back.

My knee feels good enough to go down and pick up lunch so I ordered. A cheeseburger. With fries. Yep. That will work nicely. Plus, I think I'm being wussy about it anyway. I thought it kept me up all night but... my bed said my sleep was 94% out of 100. Arguing with the bed seems silly.

Laundry is laundrying. I have three more episodes of The Diplomat (Netflix) and, actually, lots of other TV to watch while I make more knitted things that will get camera action.

my gramps has cramps

I just made a homemade French dressing so good it will make you punch your neighbors kid. Twice.

The Knee Report

Yesterday I was considering amputation. Every move was a killer. Last night I loaded up on voltaren and a lidocaine patch and it still bugged me all night. BUT this morning, it actually does seem better. Last night, Martha texted me that she'd left a surprise in my cubbie. At the time, I did not see how I was ever going to be able to walk to the mailroom again. This morning, it seems totally doable. Last night, I left a pile of trash on the island because walking it two doors down to the trash room seemed too painful to consider. This morning, that seems silly. So yeah, better. And now I need to make it all the way to 100%. I did get the brace but I can't tell if that makes any difference or not. I will be wearing it when I go back to volleyball, for sure. It amuses me how little patience I have for this kind of thing. It's only been a week since I wrenched it originally and I feel like it's been forever.

Lots of my friends from here - most of volleyball and 3 from elbow coffee - are going to the local no kings march. I am not. And, honestly, I would not even if I had two knees that worked well. I feel like I got all marched out in the 60's. I have a difficult time drawing a line between marches like these and changes in anything. And/or I'm lazy.

Last night's Mariners game was exhausting. It was won in one second, really, near the end of the game. A 4 run home run. So now we have to do it all over again Sunday. The odds are not in our favor so unless we pull out a win, we also play Sunday in a winner take all. Did I mention it was exhausting?

Elbow Coffee this morning then knee rest for the rest of the day.

a dying breed

Huzzah!
Yesterday was New Pee Bag Day. It was a bittersweet one as it may be the last. I spoke with That Cute Doctor today about having this here supra pubic catheter finally removed and he agreed. I thought the removal process would be something long & complicated. I was wrong.

It’s simply the matter of removing the bag (and plugging the line) and measuring my output each time I, uh....output naturally (peeing through the ole Trump, not into the cath bag.) In the morn I pop the bag on for a few to see how much was not expelled naturally. Then pop it off, rinse and repeat. I will know in three weeks. Fingers {and weiners) crossed.

After two years, it will be nice to know that the only thing wrinkly and dangling off of me are these things that should naturally be wrinkly and dangling off of me.

(no subject)

I seem to have reached a point in my preparations to move where there's not much more I can do until right before moving day. I do still need to more thoughtfully pack for the time between moving-out-of-here day and moving-into-somewhere-more-permanent day, but that shouldn't take too long. I think this coming week should be fairly stress-free, but I'm not so sure about the following week, with moving day right in the middle of the week.

This morning I walked to parkrun, and by the time I was coming home again (running and walking in 30 second intervals) my legs were feeling quite tired. It's 2 ½ miles/4 km from here to the parkrun starting point and parkrun itself is 3 miles/5 km, so by time I get home again I've covered about 8 miles/13 km. I probably should have walked slightly more slowly on my way there, but oh well, I made it home ok.

My friend P, who happens to be one of the founders of our parkrun, organised a special milestone thing for me this morning, as it was my 195th parkrun. Normally you get a milestone acknowledgement (and you can buy a t-shirt) at 25, 50, 100, and 250 parkruns (and at 500 if you make it that far), but because I won't even make it to 200 before I leave, she decided to celebrate my 195th instead. She made a card with 195 in gold letters on the front and had people sign inside, which was really nice, and I will treasure it. Later she worked out that nobody else has done as many parkruns at our local parkrun as I have. Two have done more parkruns than me, but not all at our local one.

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Car Service Day

Overslept and woke up at 6:30 AM. I still could make to the car dealership if I skipped breakfast. Oliver and Lily attended my shower and checked out the shower stall. Oliver went into the dryer when I got my clothes out and lay down on the warm clothes.

Dropped the car off to be serviced. Took the shuttle back home.

Well, I just sunk a bunch of money into Mom's car, so I hope that it will keep working for me until I can afford a new car. The mechanics think that the hood lock is loose and is causing the alarm to go off. I'll need to being it back on Monday to get the lock fixed.

The car runs like a dream now. They even washed it!

I canceled my singing lesson because I’m too wiped out. I just want to eat and feed the critters and crash. Fed us all. Now I'll crash.

Current Music: Paul Revere & the Raiders

(no subject)

I wanted to do this Moroccan lamb thing for dinner tonight and I tried looking at Trader Joe, Safeway and Sprouts and nobody had boneless lamb shoulder. I finally had to go to this mom and pop grocery store near where I live and they had it but it was not cheap, I wound up having to cut the recipe in half and I'm going to make a lot of vegetables and couscous to go with it as well as pita bread (at least the pita bread was free and so were some of the veggies).

phuque

I had a lovely swim and then retwisted my knee getting out of the pool. Goddmanit. It's now back to nearly what it was originally. Sitting and not moving it is pain free. Walking is fairly painful. So. I won't be doing much of that!

I iced it down and voltarened it up and it's responding well to both actions.

Happily, I have plenty of food right here and plenty of entertainment and no where I have to go or really even want to go.

I did pick up next week's menus and it looks like it's going to be an excellent meal week. An eat good and fill the freezer week. Yeah!

While I was swimming, I got to worry, again, about my TV subscriptions. Am I doing it right. Am I doing it smart. Am I understanding? In my mind, I developed a new spreadsheet giving every subscription a color and stringing them along a month in each column. All but 2 are annual.

While my knee was icing I did it. I have a big red cell for when they renew the monthly cost in each color. One question I was trying to answer was... IF I kept Hulu live and so no longer needed Paramount, Peacock and regular Hulu, even though it would not be quite as good, would it be worth the savings? Turns out, for me, Having annual Peacock and Paramount subscriptions plus the monthly Hulu (cause they don't offer annual) is still WAY cheaper than Hulu Live. This is great news cause I really do not like Hulu live.

Anyway, now it's all organized in a lovely at a glance way. And I'm a happy camper. With a crap knee.

And we're all shook out

The earthquake drill was actually a good one. No one caused problems. Bonny had it all under control and had help from the right people. We were all in the elbow. I was sitting away from the action and Jackie (the new person who's a little strange and mostly deaf) asked me what we were supposed to do. I told her that if they needed me, they would let me know and until then I'll be sitting out of the way being quiet. "Then I will copy you." Good answer.

My neighbor, Jim, was very confused. Bonny had gone in a couple of days ago and gone over everything that would happen and what he was to do but none of that stuck. We were supposed to put an OK sign outside our door. Bonny said she had left his on his shelf. But, I couldn't find her and he had no idea what I was talking about. I grabbed the first blank piece of paper I could find and said to him 'do you have something I can write with?' He handed me a fork. 'No, no, I mean a pen or marker' He handed me a spoon. I went back to my house and got a marker and make him an OK sign and took him up to the elbow where he sat for the rest of the drill. He did ask if he needed to do anything and I told him no. He just needed to hang. He did. And then we all went back home.

Jim does not seem unhappy or in danger but I'm not sure how long that last part is going to last. At least all of us here on the hall are aware and he does know to come ask me if he really needs help.

Biggie came out to join us and went around to everyone to say hi. There was a snafu with the radio (reporting in) but it was fixed soon enough. No one bitched too much and it was all ok.

We got a note yesterday that the pool will be closed Monday-Wednesday of next week. So no volleyball on Tuesday. I think I'm going to skip Saturday (tomorrow) as well and give this knee a chance to get 100%. It's about 75% now. I also ordered an action brace from Amazon which should be here today.

I'm really bummed about the Mariners. They took a 2 game lead and blew the next 2 games. They play today and then go back to Toronto and play again Sunday. And I'm stuck with the bill for another month of Hulu Live. I'm honestly kind of over the whole thing at this point. It went from FUN! to depressing really really fast.

It's a lovely, rainy morning with kind of a menacing sky but I just looked at the forecast and it looks like the sun will be out later. So I think I'll go on over and get my swim in before it does.

(no subject)

A few days ago I wrote about trying to change my address with my Australian bank account, and not being able to do so because they need to text an Australian mobile number to verify me, and I don't have an Australian mobile phone. When I emailed the bank they gave me a number which can be called from outside Australia between the hours of 8 am and 6 pm Perth time, i.e. 8 pm and 6 am my time. Yesterday evening I called at 8 pm, waited about ten minutes in a queue, and finally got through on what ended up being a very frustrating call.

The woman I spoke to at first seemed confused that I couldn't just change my address online myself, but eventually understood my dilemma about not having an Australian mobile phone to receive a text. She asked me various questions (name, birthdate, etc), but then said she couldn't get into my account and would have to talk to her manager. Ok, fine, let's just get this done.

However, after some more minutes on hold, she said they didn't have enough security questions to ask me and still couldn't get into my account, but I could go onto the bank website and download some forms which I could fill in and mail back to them along with certified copies of some ID. One of them would be a change of address form and one would be a certification document. Well, I couldn't find any change of address form, but I did find the certification document, which has a list of acceptable people who can certify an official document. Unfortunately, I know from a previous experience (not with the bank) that international certification is not straightforward; having something signed by a notary public here does not necessarily translate directly into it being accepted as certified in Australia. I think my only option would be to go to the Australian embassy and have someone there do it.

So, after about half an hour on the phone, I decided that this seems like a ridiculous amount of faffing around just to change the address on my bank account*, and I don't think I'm going to do it. I get communications through the bank's secure messaging system (and I get an email telling me when one of those has been sent), and only very occasionally get something by mail as well.

* Leaving aside the fact that I don't entirely trust the mail services (either here or in Australia) to deliver my documents, and might find that I've gone to all that trouble only to discover that my letter has got lost somewhere in transit.

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So Freaking Tired

Overslept and got up at 7:30 AM, so I didn't get a chance to book the flights. I have to book them tonight. Got the dog and cat boarding booked.

Ordered more food for all of us. I need to figure out how much food I'll need for boarding and order it this weekend.

Note to self: Send Gracie's shot records.

Oliver will abandon a full bowl of his food to eat Lily’s food. Little snot.

Man, I'm sleepy. I need to lie down after work. No, I'll get a few things done and go to bed early because I need to drop the car off to be fixed.

I read an article in the New Yorker about pet adoption transports from the South to other areas of the country. That's how I got Bella and Gracie. They both came from Texas. Bella has decided that she loves snow though. We'll see what Gracie thinks of it.

Brought groceries in. Booked my flights and the buses to and from O'Hare. Fed us all. Sent Gracie's shot records to the boarding place. I'm too tired to accomplish anything else, so I'm going to start laundry and go to bed.

rocket ride

Oh, no!
RIP Ace. Goodbye to another chunk of my childhood. \m/ \m/