Monday, January 9, 2023

I feel guilty for bad-mouthing my nephew. Though he does need a prod frequently that was not the case this time. Both he and his wife have COVID (my nephew's first time). The last thing his Mom would need would be COVID on top of flu and pneumonia. My other SIL arrived yesterday afternoon to stay until ill SIL can manage on her own. We (healthy SIL and I) were chuckling together about how she needs to suppress her usual "bossiness" to stay off of ill SIL's nerves, LOL.

Shirl's description of her fantastic trip to Vietnam reminded me that Mike just finished booking everything for our honeymoon/first anniversary trip. 18 days on a small sailing cruise around Tahiti, 3 days in an overwater bungalow there, several days in New Zealand, a couple of days in Australia, and 5 days in Hawaii (Oahu and Maui). Mike never does things on a small scale. We will be traveling from April 10-May 15. I think we will need to low-key it when we get home.

Time to get my act together. I need to assess pool party supplies today, attend the Bocce Captain's meeting (in Mike's place) and attend the Bocce cookout tonight. I am hoping it will be fairly warm today. Lately it has been in the 50's at night and mid 70's during the day. Not bad for the coldest month here.

Have a marvelous Monday!

Good morning! Well sort of - I pulled what seems to be a very important muscle in my rump! Piriformis, I think? So painful to sit with my legs anywhere near a 90 degree angle to my body, lay down on my side, have my knee anywhere but straight in front of me (no knee to the side like cross-legged), standing is fine, walking okay. Anyway, all the stretches for piriformis like figure 4, hurt way too much to attempt right now. I've been icing and taking Advil. Argh. Once again, an injury I have no story to go along with. It just started to hurt like a cramp that wouldn't go away.

So I'm not sure what I'm up to today. I think we might go to the hardware store and buy a new dryer vent hose and put that in. My dryer keeps getting a diminished airflow error and looking behind it, the vent hose is really crimped. Plus I dried sheets the other day and they were so hot, I couldn't touch them. Fire hazard!

My cousin's daughter sent her save the date cards yesterday for her wedding in late October. That might be the incentive I need to reverse a little of this gain so I have something to wear! And 9 months is a nice long amount of time. Nothing crazy, but hiking and a little less food and fewer carbs wouldn't kill me.

That's all I've got. Off to sit on an ice pack!

Liz, your trip sounds amazing too!!

Hmmm, I should use my trip as incentive to lose!

I hope your muscle pull improves. I hate to tell you but they get more frequent as one gets older. That possible crack in my ribs was only a pull and is almost resolved but boy did it hurt the other day! And today I have a back thing going on (the location causes me problems on a fairly frequent basis). It seems to be related to how I bend down to pick up things on the floor, though it has nothing to do with how heavy they are. Oh well!

Greetings all

The sun is out, it's fairly calm and not raining so I am preparing to spring into action (LOL like I ever do that). But I need to go to the store to prepare for the football game tonight. CC I assume you and your family (Dad football savant) will be doing so. I need to get food I can feed to old Chip. He ralphed up his breakfast of rice and hamburger and I am not sure why. Guess I will look for cooked rice cereal and baby food or something. And I will get stuff for chicken soup for the two legged household members.

Liz sorry the nephew has covid but it explains his absence from assisting SIL. We never know what's going on with someone else until we do. Hope they all get well. Stating he has covid for the first time makes me think about how grateful I am to have not had it even once. I guess it comes from maintaining a low profile.

CC sorry you have a muscle pull. No fun. Welcome to the world of getting older - waking up everyday and wondering "what is going to hurt today?" If I were you I would sit in a hot tub rather than on ice but thats just me. My hand therapist used to say use what feels good to you rather than by some formula. Hope you get relief by whatever means. You have probably pushed yourself in all your nesting activities.

DD hope the early meeting was not too taxing and that you have an easy day with no more snow. Did your snow tourists get enough?

Tahiti trip sounds grand. Liz. How do you pack for a 5 week trip? Does ship have laundry?

Peps hope you did not get too much more rain. The news reports on the bay area are awful but it's a huge area so it can't all be trashed. Power in neighborhoods around here are still off and on as are the roads. Studio buddy is still at the holiday inn.

Not much else. Better get moving. Diane S

We had more rain last night. It rained and rained. The creek was a raging torrent this morning, but has calmed down this afternoon. We lost two large branches from the old growth oak in the lower yard last night or early this morning. Luckily the dogs were inside! I believe the weather station reported over an inch of rain between 10 pm and 6 am this morning. All the local cow ponds are full now, too. That makes me happy. Last year they didn't fill up more than a third of the way.

The ship actually has FREE laundry (LOL, meaning included in the cost).

Diane, our snow tourist paid money to go to an ice maze! Nieces, nephews and spouses invited us old people, we declined. I used to embrace winter activities, that part of life is now behind me. I prefer winter from the window, inside a toasty room.

CC piriformis is so friggin annoying!!! And painful. Silly little muscle can be such a trouble maker.

Liz, that is an incredible honeymoon/1st anniversary trip! The stories you will have!

Already January 9, and we go away for this weekend, so I'm hoping January will zip by. Once January is done, I can start saying, I only have 2.5 years to retirement. It will happen eventually...

I am at 2.5 years now! Whoo hoo! We can retire basically together at the end of the 2025 school year.

That's the plan! Class of 2025! I tell my students who are currently sophomores, we'll be graduating together.

Started writing this this afternoon, but had to stop to have a FaceTime shrink session and then had to run to make it to a board meeting. So, here I am posting after 11:00 pm. Should probably just start the thread for tomorrow.... LOL

The rain is taking its toll around here. Small mudslides at my old school, lost branches and downed trees at home, lower yard is a slick, muddy mess, but at least covered with leaves to keep the mud from attaching to little furry feet!

Food/eating is what it is. I'm neither gaining nor losing. I guess my body has found its happy (but fat) place!

I am trying hard to keep a supply of patience/empathy/support in stock for BFF. I forget how draining it can be do be a support to someone who is chronically depressed. Sometimes I feel I have enough to do to take care of myself and I can become apathetic when his depressive episodes last weeks and weeks. Today starts week 3 of this latest major depressive episode.

Puppy watch has begun. Lulu is due tomorrow. I am guessing that she won't whelp until late tomorrow or early Wednesday.

The senior group I've been working with donated another 70 ukuleles to the school district. I'm pretty excited. The group funded "my dream" proposal in a matter of about 4 weeks! 90 ukuleles were delivered last week. Within a few weeks we'll have all 160 ukuleles I requested!

Okay, time to get bed....