A Few Steps Back -- EZ

Well, mom has taken a few steps back since I was last here. As most of you know, she went to the emergency room on Thursday night. They assumed all of her problems had to do with over-medication and they sent her home. Everyone came over on Friday afternoon, Melody and Jon and Baby Lynn are in town and we had a nice spaghetti dinner. Mom was a little out of it, but she was functioning except that she could not put any weight at all on her feet. Jackson and I had to take off at around 6:30pm to go visit some friends in Chelsea and to spend the night there. When the Westbranch crew was ready to go, Gretchen offered to stay with Adrienne and Adrienne quickly took her up on the offer. None of them slept much because mom was in a lot of pain and at around 5am she could not move her legs and she actually requested to go to the hospital. So Adrienne called an ambulance and then called me. I disentangled myself from Jackson and met them all at Garden City Hospital. When they got there they were told by the staff that there was a major infection and some major discharge from the wound. Keep in mind that this is the hospital that declared her fine just the night before. Adrienne imediately called Dr. Soo and was told to get a private ambulance and to get mom to Providence hospital. There was a general consensus that she would need surgery to clean up the infection in the wound. She was in a lot of pain and the drugs they were giving did not help. Her mouth was incredibly dry, but with surgery on the horizon, no water or ice could be ingested.

Anyway, we got her to Providence and we got some good people to look at her and we finally made them understand that the pain was in her feet and she could not move her legs. They ordered an MRI and explained to us that there were some internal infected absesses that were pressing on her spinal cord. That is why the wound looked OK from the outside, but there was a river of discharge at the hospital when one of the absess burst. After they got the MRI done (a very painful process for mom) they had her in surgery in about a half hour (1pm). As soon as she went in Adrienne and I headed home so she could shower. She is on her way back and I am just waiting for some laundry to finish. I left all of my clothes in the suitcase with Jackson's. Lyle ended up taking him to see his Great Grandma since that was the original plan and then he took her down to Ohio to stay with him mom. I will pick him up tomorrow and then head home.

We will post more when we know more.

Am I better, am I worse?

It is the best of times, it is the worst of times

I don't have good and bad days I have good and bad hours.

I was alone most of the day yesterday as I am today. Gretchen is the daughter in charge and she has a real job with real hours.

Yesterday morning she changed my dressing before work and put me back down for a nap. About 10 I felt good enough to want to get up, even got dressed and was going to have something to eat. Rita happened to be on her way in while I was getting up so we visited for a while. I had some lunch, the nurse came at 3 and changed me again and I decided to lie down again. A pretty good day.

By 4:15, I was crying like a baby. The kind of cry that required sobs and gasps between breaths.. I was crying because of great pain. I could ring the bell and no one would come. I could call out a name and no one would come. I had to get out of bed and get my own pills if I wanted some relief (I have since learned to keep a supply by my bed - but too late smart) It took almost an hour (with all the crying going on) to get out of bed and get to the pills (which were a recent refill and in an impossible to open cap), get the pills down my, get back to the bed and for the crying to subside.

That's how I am.

Back Home

Who among you have ever heard of someone being discharged from the hospital at 8:30 PM? It was certainly a first for me.

Whatever the time, I was so glad to be home.

This time, I have a visiting nurse that will be coming every day to change the dressing on my wound. The dressing has to be changed twice a day and Adrienne has been given the task of the second changing each day. The nurse was here already this morning and walked Adrienne through it step by step and even tho adrienne is a little reluctant, I'm sure she will do a good job.

Today's nurse was the set-up person and our regular one will start tomorrow.

I had a really good night's sleep and it feels like it. I feel more discomfort than pain and am doing well with the medications that are prescribed whether I need them or not and haven't used hardly any that are prescribed for "as needed". Of course its only been about 16 hours since I've been home so that may yet change.

But I have been taking it easy and don't have any trips planned until Thansgiving weekend. I should be all better by then. Yes?

Jiggety

Jig

Not so Fast

We have been informed that we are waiting for non-existent blood test results before mom can be released. Our afternoon nurse came in and the following conversation happened

Me: Are her discharge papers ready?
Nurse: No we are waiting for the CBC results.
Me: From Saturdays blood draw?
Nurse: No from today's.
Me: Nobody drew blood from her since 10pm Saturday night.
Nurse: yes they did
Me: No, no they didn't. I keep a chart myself of everything that goes in and out of her. ANd everything that happens to her, There was no blood drawn today.
Nurse: (looking from my list to her chart) hmmm......the other nmurse told me it had been done, let me get back to you.
She returns in a few minutes letting us know that the blood test had been ordered at 2pm (It is now after 4 pm at the point of this conversation (it is almost 6pm at the time of this writing and they STILL have not taken the blood)).

So we are in Limbo waiting for the blood to be drawn, the CBC test to be run and the results to come back in our favor.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

The Wound Nurse came in and was not displeased with what she saw. She cleaned mom nicely and poked and prodded some but all in good faith. Then she talked about "packing" the wound. That is where I got nervous. More TMI for you, for packing the wopund think of having a really runny nose and taking a kleenex and packing your nose with the corner and leaving it there. That is what they did with the open part of the wound. Then put some 4X4 squares and another larger bandage on top of that. After that mom dedcided to sit in her chair for lunch and then back to bed for a morphine induced nap. Shortly after the pain killer was administered the Surgeon showed up. He seemed pleased with what he saw. Of course, he messed up the beautiful dressing the wound care nurse put on. He told me what kind of antibiotic cream (no oral med) to put on and where, and I boldly asked for a home care nurse once in a while to come look at it. He said sure she can come daily to change the dressing. That really made my day. So now we are awaiting our discharge orders and info about the home nurse. Mom is sleeping off the morphine and we will be snugs as bugs in rugs later this evening.

Oh What a Beautiful Morning

Mom had a very restful night. She had very few pain killers and slept for quite a long time. I have never been so glad to hear her snore in such a deep sleep before. When she got up this morning, she walked on her own to the restroom and washed up, then sat in a chair then decided she wanted to go for a walk down the hall. Back in the room she was in the chair again while her bed was refreshed. Once back in bed the pain settled back in. She is again resting comfortably.

The Dr. that removed the sutures came in before all of this activity and again proclaimed the wound superficial. But he did express worry that it could go deeper if given the chance. So we are not on our way home yet. We have to wait for her surgeon to come in this afternoon and check her out himself. meanwhile she remains on the IV antibiotic Ancef. Hopefully we will be homebound shortly.

Pain, Pain Go Away

Hi, this is Adrienne. Around 2pm, one of the nice Dr.'s came in to remove mom's sutures. Even though she had had 4 mg of morphine a couple of hours before and her 10mg of vicodin just an hour before it was truly a painful process. About halfway through the Dr. stopped and ordered an extra 4mg of morphine to help her get through the most painful part. Although the extra drugs helped take the edge off it didn't completely make it a painless process. Gretchen and Gordon arrived just in time to watch this fun time and afterwards I went back to moms to get a little rest. When I returned about 4 hours later she proclaimed to not be in any pain. What?! Could this be as simple as removing those horrible sutures? Or were a Herclean amount of drugs still rushing through her system. It is now around 9:30 pm and she has just asked for her bedtime meds to make sure getting into a comfortable sleeping position is a smooth operation.

We fully expect to be home in our own beds (well sofa bed for me) tomorrow evening.

Not Worried

OK, Adrienne just called and Dr. Soo is not worried. He says that the incision did not so much open up as fail to close. He said there is no infection but they are going to keep mom in the hospital tonight with an antibiotic drip and then send her home tomorrow with some antibiotic cream. Another doctor is suppose to be coming soon to take out all of the sutures to make sure those are not what is bothering her. The nurses did not seem to want to change mom's dressing so Adrienne asked for the supplies and has done it herself. What a good daughter.

Morning

She slept well and ate some breakfast. The morphine is helping, but the incision isvery painful to the touch. When she left the hospital two weeks ago I think Dr. Soo told her to make an appointment with him in 4 weeks, she had whittled that down to three but Dr. Soo seemed to think that to be indulgent. Now at the hospital the other doctors and nurses seem amazed that no one has looked at her back since the surgery. Between that and doing too much too soon, here we are.

In A Bed

1am - OK, she is settled in a bed, has had 4mg of morphine, and has asked for a sleeping pill. Adrienne will be there all night and then Gretch will come in tomorrow to give her a break. I still have Jackson here and I have to be at work on Monday so I am useless.

G - your number is busy and I am tired. Stop by the house and pick up the envelope of papers before you head to the hospital.

Admitted

9:25pm - Adrienne just sent a text saying that mom is being admitted. She will update when she has more cells on her phone.

Three Steps Back

Well, we broke the mommy today. We took her out to Colasanti's (about a 2 hour drive) and we broke her. Broke her right in half.

When Adrienne checked her incision this morning it looked OK, maybe a little red but OK. Tonight after Adrienne, Jackson, and I got back from dinner mom was complaining about some pain around her incision and when Adrienne and I looked it seemed to have broken open in one place and was oozing something green and unpleasant. (TMI? Tough.) Adrienne called the doctor's service and he called back within a few minutes and after a long conversation (well, long for Dr. Soo) he said to bring her to the emergency room Providence Hospital (not the closest hospital, but the one where she had the surgery). He did not seem worried about infection but he was worried about the wound opening. So we packed her up and they set off just after 8pm.

9pm - Adrienne just called me and said that she really didn't have anything to report except that they had been seen by a doctor and he did not like what he saw so he was calling in the resident. I am sitting here listening to Jackson playing the bedroom without any intention of going to sleep, but I don't even care.

I will keep you all posted.

p.s. - You can tell at the bottom of a post (where the time and comments are) who posted here. It is is mom, it will say "Paulette" if it is me it will say "EZ."

Hitting the Wall

I'm afraid I was trying too hard to become the poster child of how quickly one can recover from this surgery.

I've been out to eat four times, been to the mall twice, been to the show, out for long walks (in my wheelchair) and last night I spent the night lying awake waiting for the time to take my next pain pill.

I think its time to slow down a little.

I had an appointment at the eye doctor yesterday, but when Adrienne looked up some of my medications on the Internet we found that they could affect my vision. So when we mentioned this to the doctor, he changed my major pain medication from percoset to darvoset. I cancelled the eye doctor. I am continuing the percoset until it runs out (sometime today) then I will start on the other.

Monica, as to the long shoehorn, it seems to be a tool to be used standing up and I am not quite able to put my shoes on standing up yet. I'm not able to get a good angle on it while sitting. I guess you would have to try it to see what I mean.

I've been warned

Yesterday morning Adrienne caught me in bed whimpering in pain and yelled at me that if I wasn't going to wake her up when I needed her she may as well go home. That got my attention.

I didn't have to wake her up last night, but she attended to me often and I had a pretty good night. I couldn't account for her's tho. She's is theoretically still in bed but had been up and down so much she couldn't possibly be sleeping.

We had a beautiful fall, sunny day yesterday and Adrienne got my wheelchair out and took me for a walk. We stopped to visit my old neighbors, the Suchy's. The filled me in on recent deaths in the complex. One was the husband of the lady who had been my roommate on a trip to Italy. He was originally from the hills of Kentucky and was our "go-to" guy when we found animals in the traps set near the garbage containers.

The other was a woman whose son coincidentally committed suicide the same day she died. Neither was aware that the other had died. What a reunion that must have been in the afterlife.

I'm Really Home

The first couple of days I was apprehensive of coming home. The things that were so difficult for me to do in the hospital (get in and out of bed, walk a little, even roll over) just seemed like they would be impossible on my own. I had at least one daughter there around the clock and sometimes two. But this is turning out to be way better than I was expecting. Adrienne is a hard taskmaster but I try to do everything she says.

They gave me a walker and that is more helpful than I expected. Trying to use it inside the hospital room was just ridiculous. But using it here is helpful, even tho there are only 10 to 15 steps at a time. In the hospital there were never more than 2 or 3.

From Mary's estate came a bidet type of seat that can be installed on a normal toilet and Jeff is coming over tonight to install it (or give it a good try).

Adrienne is fixing a roast beef dinner for us and Steph and her husband and Rita will be joining us also.

My wound leakage has been keeping Adrienne busy with laundry and she went out and got me a vinyl mattress cover for my bed and pillows. She is taking very good care of me and is sympathetic to my whining. She has set up some very professional medication charts so as not to kill me.

I thank you for all the prayers and good thoughts.

There's No Place Like Home

Mom is home!! I just got the call from Adrienne. After I talked to her at about 11am they changed mom's dressing and basically said she was good to go. She stayed for lunch (they had good soup there) and then off they went. Adrienne claimed to be stinky (I thought I smelled something) and she was heading into the shower and then she was going off to fill prescriptions. Just in case mom has any more pain. Nah, that won't happen.

Some things may be harder at home than they were in the hospital, but still I am sure it is nice to be home. I know I like thinking of here there more than I liked thinking of her in the hospital. Maybe she will even do her own post soon.

Better and Better

Mom did a lot yesterday morning while Adrienne went home to sleep. She had an Occupational Therapist come in and talk to her about how to do things when she goes home. Mom proved to her that she could handle the bathroom and I was happy for the help with that (Adrienne had been doing most of the potty runs). As soon as she left the Physical Therapist came in and Mom walked down the hall and up a few stairs. Of course, I ran ahead and had a chair waiting at the end of the hall for her to rest and she was very happy for that. The PT person was surprised but we explained that we have been dealing with back pain for years, this is nothing new to us. Anyway, she handled the stairs fine and then it was back to bed. But only for a few minutes until the new brace arrived with a brace technician to show us how to use it. Boy was I sorry Adrienne wasn't there then, she is the one that will need to get this on mom when they are home. Luckily, she is a smart cookie who has braced things before and she will figure it out in no time. The brace person really pissed mom off because she was always standing in the way and was just generally clueless. I finally went for the nurse who was able to intervene and the brace person went on her way. So mom was sitting up in the brace for most of the morning and she was sitting that way and having her lunch when Adrienne got back. Aunt Rita showed up at about the same time and quickly filled them in on all of our activities and then hightailed it to Indiana to hug my baby. And sleep. Sleep is good. Sleep is great. Sleep is even better in a real bed with real pillows. Mmmmmm. Sleep. But I digress.

I talked to Adrienne last night and again this morning and mom is doing fine. She has pain on and off, but she has more good than bad. The doctor mentioned changing her dressing before she went home but he did not sign a discharge order yet so we are still hanging on to find out exactly when they might be able to go home. I will keep you all posted.

Ice Anyone?

Mom has eaten more than her fair share of ice here in the hospital, each tech has commented on how much she can go through. That would not be enough to necessitate a whole blog post but then Adrienne called me from the parking lot this mornng at 6:45am asking where mom kept her ice scraper. I told her to bring mittens and she didn't believe me.

Mom is doing really well. She had some pretty bad, discouraging pain last night. Each pain med they gave her seemed to have no effect at all. We turned the ballgame on and read trivia questions and the distractions helped. At around midnight the nurse got some Benadryl approved and I decided to go to sleep in the lounge so Mom could try to sleep better. I found out later that around 1am she had some of the IV pain medicine and ended up getting up to go to the bathroom and decided to take a little walk down the hall. I missed it all.

She slept good and I slept good (the lounge had a chair that turned into a pretty decent bed) but Adrienne did not sleep much. So we sent her back to mom's to get some sleep this morning and when she gets back I will start for home. I couldn't let her go before 6:30 because the tech that was on last night (nicknamed BroomHilda) was terrible. We needed Adrienne her to manage potty breaks, etc.

One of the doctors came in after Adrienne left and told mom that she could have the IV taken out this morning since she has been eating good. That will makes trips to the bathroom much, much easier. He also took out a drain that has been in her since the surgery. He seemed to think that she should be going home tomorrow. Yay!

I don't have much juice left in my laptop and all of the plugs in here are taken up by beeping things, so this may be my last post. I am sure Adrienne and mom will keep you all updated when they get home.

Vampires

We are doing great! Right at this moment. Mom's doctor has come and gone and he upped her pain medication. She hasn't actually taken any more than usual but she is feeling good anyway. Adrienne went home for a little while and she just came back a few minutes ago. Aunt Rita just went home and we plan on settling in for the night. One of the results from an earlier blood test was that her hemoglobin was low an so we have been dripping the fluid of life into her for the last few hours. Her cheeks are pink and rosy and all is right with our world. Right enough even to take a picture or two.

Home for One

Adrienne is here! Yay! Since we all had such a long day yesterday and mom was not ready to be left alone without a daughter, Jeannette picked Adrienne up from the airport and brought her right to the hospital. To manage cars I had Jeannette bring me back home so that I could shower and change and then drive my own car to the hospital. That way Adrienne could take possession of mom's car and not be tied to anyone for a ride anywhere. Aunt Rita is on her way back to the hospital so it might be a full room for the rest of the day, since I plan on heading back as soon as I am done here.

We made it through the pain (with a little help from Categories/Encore and modern pharmeceuticals) and on to lunch, which mom liked very much. She did some rotating in the bed which was not as bad as she feared and she was scheduled to get some blood as I was leaving. I feel great knowing that I left a sister behind so I don't have to worry about her.

A shower and a nap sound really good right about now.

Take a Little Walk

It is just past 10am and mom just went for a little walk. The physical therapist taught her the right way to get out of bed and she said it was not nearly as bad as she feared it would be. Not that it was good, but when you are dreading something and it is only bad the contrast effect makes it seem great. She walked with a walker just a little ways down the hall and back and it made her feel weak. She is still having a lot of pain so it is all hard, but we are getting through it.

A New Day

It is just about 7:30am and Adrienne is in Houston. Mom and I both slept some but could have used more. Here is the thing about sleeping in a hospital room while not in a bed: I am not so old that I can't get into the contortionistic (totally a word) positions necessary to sleep in a chair but I am too old to hold those positions very long. Something would start to hurt and/or fall asleep and I would have start positioning all over again on the other side. And then, when I could finally find the perfect position someone would come it to take vitals or blood or something. The nausea seems to be gone; Adrienne says that means the anestesia has finally worn off.

One of the nurses last night assured mom that this was the worst part and today wouldbe better because she would be able to get up and walk some. If you know mom, and you all do, you know that she is very dubious of this claim.

Anyway, Jeannette will be picking Adrienne up in a few hours and bringing her here. Yay!!

Still Here

Well, it is nearly 10pm and I am still at the hospital with mom. She was in a lot of pain when she was wheeled upstairs and then she got very nauseous. For the record, dry heaving is not recommended after back surgery. When the nurse got back from dinner she gave mom some pain medication and something for the nausea. It helped a little but she was still very uncomfortable and the room felt very hot. Gretch and I took turns fanning her with a folder while the technicians brought her a roommate. Luckily, the roommate started snoring almost immediately so we did not feel like we were disturbing her.

Visiting hours were officially over at around 8pm but I asked mom if she wanted me to try to spend the night and she said yes. So Gretchen and Gordon took Aunt Rita home and I have pulled the most comfortable chair in the room up the bed. She had some more nausea at around 9:20 and they gave her something else (reglan?) which seems to be helping a great deal. The nurse also put the head of her bed up at about a 30deg angle (a position that she had resisted earlier because getting there was painful) and that seems to have helped too. Oh yeah, and they shut off the stupid automatic blood pressure machine which was squeezing her arm off every 14 minutes. She is still having some on and off pain and the nurse just offered her a Valium, but mom said it is not that bad yet. The nurse told her not to wait until it got bad. I like our nurse.

Anyway, she is going in and out of sleep and hopefully she will feel better in the morning.

A Real Room

After three hours in recovery mom is finally in a real room. She is sharp as a damn tack (according to her) and she looks like she just went through major surgery but she is fine. We are only going to stay for a little while so she can get set up (can you say morphine drip) and then we will all be heading off to our respective beds. Gretchen's bed is still 2.5 hours away. Poor baby.

Recover This

OK, she is out of surgery and into recovery. It took much longer than they expected and her bones are softer than anyone (including her) knew, but she did fine.

At about 2:45pm we got beeped and when we went to the desk we had a phone call from the OR saying that it was taking longer than they expected but she was fine and they should be finished within the hour. Then 15 minutes later we were beeped and the surgeon said "It went fine." He had no intention of saying anything else (mom warned us that he was a man of few words), but when pressed he said that she had very soft bones so it took longer than expected. He said she would be in recovery for a few hours and then moved to a regular room where she will be for 3-4 days. We are back in the cafeteria having some lunch. We probably won't get to see her until around 5pm but I will post after that.

In the OR

It took a long time, but she was finally wheeled into surgery at around 9:50am. The hospital has a beeper system that is really cool. When we showed up they signed mom in and they gave us a beeper, just like the one you get at a restaurant when there is a wait. Then we all went into the waiting room, when the beeper went off they took mom away. I tried valiantly to go with her but they assured me that they just needed mom at that point and they would beep us when we could come back. After a half hour I started getting antsy (it is going to be a long day) and I made Gretchen go look in the hallways to make sure they hadn't left her somewhere. While she was gone the beeper went off again and we were able to go back and sit with mom. Well, sit is overstating it, only one of us could sit at a time. After about an hour of waiting for the surgeon and having twenty people come in and take a brief history ("have you become alergic to anything in the last three minutes?) the resident said that the surgeon was not likely to come back to see her before the surgery and it could be up to a half hour more. So, Gretchen went to get Aunt Rita so that she could see mom before she went back. Then within about 20 minutes they came and wheeled her off. I assured her that we loved her like crazy and we would be there when she came out.

Gretchen went out for a McD run and Aunt Rita and I are sitting in the cafeteria waiting. Our next beep should not be for a few hours and it should be the surgeon coming to tell us how the operation went. I will check in again after that. Or when I am bored. Which ever comes first.

Out the Door

It is 6:10am and we have all be up since 5:30am (OK, we woke mom up but she needed to get up eventualy). Aunt Rita just came in the door and we are on our way to the hospital. I called ahead they told me I could scrub in on a few surgeries while I am there, I feel qualified since I watch her little video. Or we may just play cards (Gretchen, Gordon, Aunt Rita, and I will all be there).

And So It Starts

A few weeks ago Jeannette informed me that Marc's sister Theresa had died. I knew that she was ailing, but if I knew from what, I have forgotten now. She is the second one of those 13 siblings that reached adulthood to pass. She was 82 years old. She is survived by (in descending order) Lucille (86), Noella (84), John Robert (79), Julien (76), Marc (75), Pierrette (73), Andree (72), Gilles (71), Fleur Ange and Fleur Aimee (70), and Francine (64). Note the big jump between the twins and Francine was filled by two other children (MaTante Yvonne was no slacker) who died very young.

Doctor, Doctor

Yesterday I had a doctor's appointment with my primary care physician to renew my maintenance prescriptions. Those include blood pressure medications and Celebrex for arthritis. However, he was not the doctor that could clear me for surgery. So I had another appointment today with his son who does Internal Medecine.

A couple days ago I mentioned to someone that I almost felt like a fraud for scheduling such drastic surgery when my pain had been tolerable for the last few days. Fast forward to this morning. Two days ago I had stopped (on surgeon's orders) taking any Vicodin, Celebrex or anything else containing aspirin or nsaids. I had a heck of a time getting out of bed. I could take tylenol except not then because I was fasting for blood work. I got myself to the doctor's office and sat in the waiting room, fighting back tears (and not always successfully). They took the blood, and EKG, and Xrays, then the doctor came in.

I told him my dilemma and asked him if I could maybe take Tylenol 4 which I used to take for back pain. He explained why not but said that it would be ok for me to take the vicodin as long as I didn't take more than one or two per day. I love this doctor. I took one on my way out to the car.

Me and Jeannette have a date to go to Windsor Casino on Sunday and I was supposed to treat her to a birthday lunch. All morning I was thinking of how disappointed she was going to be when I cancelled. Not because she needed the free lunch but she doesn't like to go to the casino alone and counts on me as a companion. Now that I can take a pain pill, with tylenol in between, I'm good to go.

By the way, I'm good to go for the surgery, too. The doctor said I tested perfect.

Well Shut My Mouth

Today I had an appointment at the Michigan Spine and Brain Surgeons. I thought I was meeting with a Dr. Tecksoo. Turns out it was first name Teck, last name Soo. As Rita was parking the car I said, "The best thing that could happen is that he looks at the MRI pictures and says, I can fix that." We were in the waiting room and inner exam room for 2 hours before we ever saw the doctor. Nurses took a lot of information from me and they took a set of x-rays.

When the doctor finally came in, he took out my MRI pictures and looked at each one and said (I swear to God) "I can fix you". I'm not sure I asked all the right questions and he seemed a little cavallier but I am scheduled for a Lumbar Laminectomy and Fusion on October 26th. He asked several times if I was sure that I could no longer live with the pain. That was a hard question because I still have some relatively good days. But when I remember the really bad ones I believe I am ready for whatever will help.

All the nurses I interacted with at that office said he is an excellent surgeon. The surgery will be done at Providence Hospital. They have a spine surgery seminar every Friday and Rita and I plan to go next friday. They also gave me a web site www.understandingspinesurgery.com/soo that will give me an animated explanation of my surgery. If you want to see it, you click on Patient Education, enter your email address and click I Agree and it will take you to the main menu. My condition is under Spondylolisthesis - Laminectomy, Fusion - Instrumented. The nurse that gave me this information also checked Scoliosis - Derotation with Instrumentation, but the doctor never mentioned that he was going to do that part although I was told a few years ago that scoliosis was one of my problems.

I am hoping that Adrienne will be able to come stay with me for a few weeks during my recovery. Its all moving pretty fast and things are falling into place. Just everybody remember to add me to your list of people for God to bless when you say your evening prayers.

The War

Last night I finished watching the Ken Burns series on PBS called The War. Boy, was that ever informative and interesting. Names that I remembered or heard later of battles and cities were put into perspective. The sheer numbers and statistics were so interesting. We all knew that virtually all manufacturing was geared to the war effort but I didn't know that only 139 automobiles were built during the 4 years that we were at war.

And at the Willow Run plant here one airplane rolled off the assembly line every 63 minutes. That's just about 24 airplanes per day and the plant was running 24/7. Ok, so even with more than 165 airplanes per week coming off the line here in Detroit, how the heck did they get them all overseas to take part in those massive battles.

The next most interesting fact I learned was about the battle of the bulge. I thought "The Bulge" was a city or area in Europe and learned that it was a protrusion on the map where the Germans were able to push back part of our hard-fought advance line near the German border.

I thought the program was very well done, giving information about what was going on here at home as well as "over there".

They're Still Laughing

I mentioned in a comment of one of Gabby's posts that slot machines don't talk to me they just laugh at me. Well they were all in cahoots at Windsor yesterday. One of my worst days at a casino. The bus doesn't leave there till 7:00 and by 5:30 I was all done playing. I told Jeannette to just park my wheelchair out of the way somewhere and keep on playing, but she just played a couple more machines and we went to the bus lounge to wait.

The up side of yesterday, not counting that erika and Jackson were there in the morning is that Jeannette had made some green tomatoe relish the day before and she gave me a jar. Yum.

Give me an M, Give me an R

I laid in the tube for a half hour and brought home a bunch of pictures. They don't look very flattering.

When I first laid down, they elevated my knees and I was quite comfortable. It only took a few minutes for the comfort to wear off and become dis-comfort and that eventually turned into pain. But me and pain are old friends and before we had visited very long the whole thing was over.

They helped me off the table and gave me a glass of water to take some aleve and a chair to wait for the films and I was on my way.

Dr. Ouch

Even with all the pain management meds, a new pain has cropped up that sent me back to the Doctor. This time she ordered a new MRI and a consult with a neurosurgeon.

The ouch part is the MRI. I know you just have to lay there but with my back that's the part that hurts. Laying on that flat slab. Hopefully some good will come of it.

chocolate

I like this thinking.


Chocolate Calories

A good piece of chocolate has about 200 calories. As I enjoy
two servings per night, and a few more on weekends, I
consume 3,500 calories of chocolate in a week, which equals
one pound of weight per week.

Therefore...

In the last 3 1/2 years, I have had a chocolate caloric
intake of about 180 pounds. I weigh only 165 pounds, so
without chocolate, I would have wasted away to nothing about
three months ago!

I owe my life to chocolate.

Party in New York

Happy Birthday Bernie


We all traveled to Rome, N.Y. for Melody's wedding. All my children, grand-children and great-grandchildren were in attendance. But we only got one picture of all of us together. I am very happy that we got at least that one.

Our map quest route took us through Canada and the scrutiny of our citizenship papers was more thorough than anytime in my recent memory. Crossing out of Ontario into Lewistown N.Y. took us more than an hour. The bridge itself is only .5 miles and it was about 11:00 am, a time that I would not consider rush hour.

We were able to do a casino trip at Turning Stone Casino on Friday afternoon while the younger set took the youngest set to the zoo.

As much as I love travelling and being with my whole family, you still can't beat home sweet home.

Dr. Feelgood

I had a follow-up visit to the doctor today and we are both pleased with the progress. The diagnosis last week was severe muscle strain. The treatment was pain management to allow the muscle time to relax itself. She gave me a prescription for vicodin that was 1/2 the strength that I had been taking, but I take it every 4 hours whether I am feeling particularly painful or not. She also gave me prescriptions for Flexeril (muscle relaxer) that I take 3 times a day and morphine patches (25 mg) that last for 3 days.

So my pain is being managed quite well. Today I will try going back to the exercise regemin that I got from the physical therapist and had been doing since February.

Rita and I stopped for breakfast after the doctor and the ham was so good, it made me think of Marcel and all the good breakfasts we have had together.

How it came out

the trial run, that is.

I never should have left the house. First of all, because we didn't have reservations we ended up sitting way at the back of the bus. The motion back there around curves and through rough pavement was horrid on my back. They brought us a wheelchair right to the bus lobby and Jeannette was a trooper pushing me through the casino, but the motion of getting in and out of the chair took a huge toll. Then there was the whole bus ride back.

I have been pretty much bed ridden with pain ever since. Today is the earliest I could get a doctor's appointment and Rita is taking me at 11:00 am. The most I am looking for is stronger pain pills. I don't know if there will be any other remedy.

I wouldn't mind all the aches of aging if it didn't hurt so bad.

Restless dreams

I dreamed that someone was chasing me with a 2 x 4. They caught me. It was that little green guy from the Ben Gay ads in the funnies years ago. I opened my eyes. My back was throbbing. BOOM boom, BOOM boom. It was throbbing in direct correlation to my breathing. BOOM boom, in; BOOM boom, out; BOOM boom, in; BOOM boom, BOOM, boom. I looked at the clock. It was two and one half hours since I had taken a pain pill. What was I going to do for the next three and a half hours till I could have another one.

While I was contemplating this, someone drove a nail into my left ankle. It really hurt and I tensed up. My right foot took that tensing motion as an invitation to cramp and my toes started to curl down. I quickly sat on the side on the bed to place my foot flat on the floor to stop the curling process. Another 15 minutes had gone by.

As I sat up I said "Hello, there" to the new pains. The rib cage that wouldn't let me take a deep breath. The neck and shoulder pain that made my head tilt funny. Another 5 minutes went by. All my pains were mocking me. "If," I said to myself, "I can stand up, I am going to take another pain pill, and a sleeping pill, and some quinine so that a cramp doesn't come back and wake me if I should happen to fall asleep."

I placed my hand on the corner of the dresser near my bed, and bracing myself, began to stand up. The tremor in my hand dropped it off the dresser and I was plunked back down onto the bed. What to do? I looked at my pillow and tilted to the right and laid my head back down. I could take a deep breath in that position and it didn't hurt. Also, if I tilted just so, my shoulder didn't hurt as much. Another 10 minutes went by. Now I only had to wait three hours for a pain pill.

I pulled my legs back up under the covers and they both seemed relaxed. Now it was just me and the BOOM, boom; BOOM, boom. I conciously changed the rhythm of my breathing so they wouldn't coincide. I closed my eyes and began a string of Hail Mary's.

When I opened my eyes, another 20 minutes had gone by. I didn't feel any pain. Another couple of Hail Mary's in gratitude. The World Series of Poker was on ESPN2. I had seen that episode but it didn't matter because I didn't have my glasses on. They were scrolling sport scores along the bottom of the screen. The Nations had beat the Martians. The Corinthians had beat the Philistines 5 to 3. I reached for my glasses to see who the teams really were.

Big mistake. Several twinges reminded me that I wasn't supposed to be moving. So I lay very still and closed my eyes. Next time I opened them there were only 20 minutes to wait till I could have my next pill. Maybe I won't need it.

So I drifted off to sleep anxiously awaiting a visit from my good friend Mrs. "I-need-to-pee", and her sisters "right-now", and "hurry-up".

Trial Run

Jeannette and I are making a trial run at the Windsor Casino today. The last couple of times I have gone there I just had to walk as far as the bus lobby and Adrienne got a wheel chair for me and wheeled me wherever we had to go. Alas, Jeannette doesn't have the youth and strength to do that. She can push me over smooth surfaces but most of the casino is carpeted and that's harder.

Jeannette really enjoys our shared casino escapades and apparently stayed awake all night mapping out a plan of action that would require minimum carpeted pushing. So we are going to the bus this afternoon without reservations and if they have openings we will test out her theoretical plan.

I have survived

Survived and thrived and it was probably the best trip of my entire life. Exceeding by far all the expectations.

The secret to enjoying travel in a wheelchair is to bring along at least two people who really love you. I don't think this trip would have been as doable with only one daughter.

I just re-read all of the cruise postings so I would know what I don't need to tell. They covered it pretty thoroughly. One nice thing we found at the very start was there were umbrella's provided with the room for our use. We hadn't thought to bring any.

Adrienne turned out to be a master at organization, navigation and procurement. We booked in advance only the St. Petersburg private car and the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen. We figured we would book others when we felt the need. It turned out that by the time we felt the need some were no longer available. Adrienne kept checking the excursion desk and managed to pick up most of what we wanted. It was her perseverance that got us the Rivers and Canals tour in St. Petersburg that was one of my favorites.

Our trivia games on ship were so much fun. One of the last trivia's was a geography one and we only got 8 answers out of 20. Adrienne turned our paper over and said "I'm not telling anyone how bad we did." Usually people shout out their scores. Adrienne maintained her silence until it looked like the winner was going to be someone who had 7. She still wasn't proud of having only 8 but that turned out to be the winning score. It was a very difficult quiz.

The prizes we collected (pens, lanyards and luggage tags mostly) will be used by Adrienne on a turn-around bus trip she is helping to organize to State Line as prizes for their travel games on the bus.

The last couple days of rough seas were very hard on my back and I developed a whole new area of pain that made life a little more difficult. But after being home and doing nothing for a few days that part has subsided. All my current pains are old friends and we are back to normal.

I may survive

These girls are trying to kill me. But I'm a survivor.

The fun started when the phone rang. A trip to the airport and Adrienne was in my car. We stopped on the way home at a restaurant I wanted to try for their $2.25 breakfast special. Adrienne laughed at me when I brought home the extra toast we hadn't eaten. A couple of shopping stops and we got home about 11:00 AM.

We left to get the Casino Windsor bus at noon. As soon as we got to the casino, Adrienne was looking for her next meal. She's a three meal a day girl. Who knew. We had a very nice lunch and proceeded to the machines. I listened intently but none of them knew my name. I had enough canadian cash for each of us to start out with $40.00. about 6 o'clock heading back to the bus pick up area we stopped at a wheel of fortune machine and I took out $66.00 and change. We stopped at a machine that cashes out tickets and it spit out $61.00. My first thought was, "the machine is broken" my next thought (after I looked at and counted the money a couple of times) was, this is american money. The small print on each machine tells you whether it will dispense american or canadian currency. I complained to the cashier and she traded me the proper amount of canadian, taking my word for how much the ticket was for.

Once off the bus, we needed a stop at Long John Silver, (3rd meal). Thursday morning we had some shopping and copying errands and I sent Adrienne on her own. Dinner at the Texas Roadhouse with erika, steph, jeannette and gretchen was a lot of fun but I was really tired. We had plans to get up at 4 or 5 to go to Greektown. I slept a couple of spurts and at about 1:00 AM we were all awake and decided to go then. We left the casino and looked for a breakfast place on the way home. We were confident that restaurants and coney islands would open at 6. Not so. When we got to the one closest to home it was 10 to 7 and we just waited for it to open at 7.

I fell into bed when we hit the house and didn't even hear Gretchen get up for work. We didn't take her with us to Greektown, her having a job and all.

So here we sit. All of our luggage got packed into Jeannette's trunk last night so we can't change our minds about what to bring. We are all showered and shaved and half asleep as we wait for our ride.

Any Minute Now

The phone is going to ring any minute now. And Adrienne will be here. I will jump in the car and drive to the airport and she will be there. That means the cruise starts now. Actually it started the minute Adrienne left her house to go to her airport, but I slept through that part.

Its ringing, she's here.

Who Won

I am watching the French Open a little earlier in the day today since ESPN2 is running the women's semi-finals live. All week I've been watching those scrolls at the bottom showing team match-ups and what time the game is going to start. I was surprised when I saw the Tigers-Indians come up and they actually had last night's scores posted. Wow, Tigers 10, Indians 0.

BTW does Micky Mouse winning the Stanley Cut diminish it in any way?

Respect or Lack of

this is a story about three people who earned no respect this morning.

The first was the greeter at Meijers whose sigh and eye roll earned no respect when I asked her for an electric cart.

I used my list but succumbed to a few impulse buys along the way. Half pound Hershey bars were on clearance. Probably because they are planning to decrease the volume and increase the price. So I bought some of those. The milk (priced at 3.09) was free if you bought two packages of oreo cookies (on sale 2 for 5.00) so I bought some of those. Natural Wheat bread, that was packaged just like my favorite Brownberry brand was buy one get one free. So I bought some of those. My cart was over flowing.

Now comes the cashier. I can't do it myself any more and it doesn't matter how far down the store the first working cashier is because I'm using the electric cart and travel is easy. The cashiers have those bag carousel things at the end of the counters and I can usually, from my sitting position, take each bag and put it in the cart as she fills it. So now I have the bread, some lunch meat and both packages of cookies in the first bag. As I try to lift it into the cart I say "You're kidding, right?" And as I am re-packing that, she is rapidly filling bags.

I am putting them into my cart, leaving a corner space for the milk. I stop to take care of the payment part of the dance and as soon as she thrusts the paperwork into my hands she comes around the counter and I am thinking "Oh good, I'm going to get help". She piles the rest of the bags into the cart and her parting words are "Don't forget your milk, I don't know where you want to put that."

Where indeed. Short of unloading and re-packing the cart there is no place for the milk. So I put it on the floorboard at my feet and proceed to the parking lot. Usually I will transfer my groceries to a regular cart and wheel that out to my car. The thought of lifting that milk is what made me ride the electric cart all the way to my car. That cashier earned no respect from me.

Now I wheel up to the back of my car and there appears beside me a cart-collector guy. I'm thinking I will not have to lift that milk into the car. Silly me. He was standing so close to the cart, I had to say "Excuse me" to be able to stand up. He moved far enough away to let me open the trunk and that's where he stood till I was all done packing the bags into the trunk. When I was near the end of the bags I almost said "Would you get that milk for me?" but I was fuming a little by then and was going to show him I didn't need no stinkin help.

When I closed the trunk he said "I'll take the cart back." and I said "Thank you." How does that thank you fall out so easily. The sentence I had in mind did end with you but it didn't start with thank.

Meijers is still my favorite place to shop. Most of the employees are courteous and helpful and I don't know why I had to encounter all 3 of the rude ones today.

The Visit

Mama came to visit me this morning. I was standing at the stove when I heard movement in the other room. I assumed it was Gretchen getting ready for work so I continued what I was doing with my back turned. When I turned and looked up there was Mama sitting in my chair in the living room. I was so glad to see her. I rushed in and leaned over to hug her and said how sorry I was to be living in a place where she had never been, and how did she find me. She said that she hadn't come alone. I heard noise in the bathroom and realized that Pa had come with her.

Before he could reveal himself, I was well and truly awake. I should have realized it was a dream because there is no way I can bend over like that. But the warm, fuzzy feeling of having seen her stays with me.

It occurs to me that my children might feel the same way about me. Happy to see me and be in the same room. I'm a little high maintenance right now but I want them to know that I will be visiting them forever even when its just in a dream.

Lazy Days

My mother went on Retreat. Retreat is something Catholics used to do (and quite possibly still do) for a day or a weekend to help kick start their spirituality. With the added bonus of a couple that I have been on, of getting away from the kids for a day or a weekend.

During her Retreat, a lecturer asked the women to write down on a piece of paper one negative attribute about themselves. My mother wrote "lazy". Then all these pieces of paper were gathered and dumped into a makeshift fire pit and the lecturer said he was going to set fire to them and the women would feel cleansed of these attributes.

My mother did not wish to be "cleansed" of her laziness. It was all she could do not to jump up and say "Wait, I want mine back." But, of course burning the papers did not make the attributes disappear, and my mother continued to enjoy being lazy till the end of her days.

In fact, her laziness is alive and well and living in her favorite daughter. My days of actually having to get dressed and do something outside the house are getting fewer and farther between. Its not that I don't like doing things outside the house (well, I kind of don't) but I love the lazy days.

That's OK Grandma

Usually Jackson stories belong to Erika but these two are mine.

While eating lunch at my kitchen table yesterday one of my front teeth broke. The one right next to the one that they fixed last time. When he saw my mouth with a tooth missing Jackson said, "That's OK Grandma, another one will grow in there."

Later he had reluctantly agreed that we could go shopping. He wanted to do something more fun than that but I told him we needed to go to the bathing suit store because I needed a bathing suit. There was someone moving out in my parking lot and their truck was blocking my car so he knew we had to wait till the truck left. While he was watching out the front door for the truck to leave he turned around and said, "Actually, Grandma already has a bathing suit."

Who expects a 3 year old to begin a sentence with actually?

I convinced him that since my bathing suit was black, I needed one with flowers on it. He likes flowers. I did find 2 bathing suits, both with flowers and Erika got one with Polka Dots. It turned out he loved polka dots on Erika.

And Then There Were Two

One little, two little, three little sisters. Papa could sing that song all the way up to 10. And now there are two. Last Friday, Alfreda succumbed to Leukemia that had been diagnosed in January. That leaves Monique, who recently suffered a stroke and is recuperating with her daughter Merrielle, and Julia who had surgery this year for a cyst removal from her breast that was benign.

I could spit

The Fed Ex truck stopped at my house yesterday. They left a mail packet from the Department of Health and Human Services.

Many years ago I participated in a National Institute of Health Diet and Health Study. I remember thinking as I answered their questions "Hah, compute this."

Another time I volunteered to participate in a study of Post Menopausal Women who had never taken hormones. But when push came to shove, I was not willing to take the pills they provided without knowing whether they were placebos or hormones. So I bowed out.

It seems this Institute is now doing a study called Parkinson's, Genes and Environment Study (PAGE). I have been selected as a participant who does not have Parkinson's. The packet included 1) consent forms, 2) PAGE Study brochure 3) 2 Saliva collection kits 4) a Logo Pen and 5) a one dollar bill oh and a prepaid return envelope.

Although Adrienne had some misgivings about giving away your DNA, I have decided, in the interest of science to participate. The saliva collection kits consist of an inner vial with a screw top cap; an outer container (like a large pill bottle)with a snap on lid, a snug plastic bag with a sticky top closure that you put the outer container in. Then there is a Manila bio hazard bubble envelope that the two plastic bags go into. This envelope is stamped "Exempt Human Specimen" There are sticky-back labels for me to affix to each specimen with control numbers etc.

They want two specimens collected within 24 hours. So this morning I did my first one. The inner vial, although it is pretty small has a fill line on it. They ask that you collect the specimen within 15 minutes. Seriously, how much can you spit in 15 minutes.

So the first one is in the bag. Now I have all day to be conscious of my saliva glands and worry about how much I am wasting every time I swallow.

On The Payroll

Last Sunday, Easter, I merged my "in-town" family (Stephanie and Arn) with Rita's and we all went to dinner together and then back to her house for desert.

At her house we were treated to many old photographs and scrapbooks that Kelly had unearthed while cleaning his basement. The trunk that held these treasures had suffered water damage along the years and the items were musty and bordering on moldy. Rita is slowly going through all of it. She had to discard scrapbooks that she had compiled of all her school work and report cards. One from grade school and another from high school. The high school one had souvenirs from dances etc. But at least she got a chance to look through them first.

She has had to work intermittently, because the residue of musty makes her feel ill.

There were things in that trunk from many branches of the family and she is saving what she can for each of us.

Today she brought me something I thought I would never see again. It is a payroll record of mine dated October 18, 1952 from Johnnie's Sweet Shoppe. I worked 3 hours after school on Monday and Wednesday, 3 1/2 hours on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and 6 hours each on Saturday and Sunday. My net pay, was $12.35. I was rich.

Guest Post -- Erika's Day From Hell

Today is Friday the 13th. I am not the least bit superstitious, but more than 10 people have said that to me today. Every year, as the research administrator on our campus, I put together a reception honoring those faculty that have published throughout the past year. I lovingly gather all of the publications together and put out a Publication Listing , then the publications themselves are all sent over to the library where they are lovingly displayed at the reception and then archived. This year I had the list ready in record time and on Tuesday the box full of publications was ready to go to the library. So I closed up the box and I wrote my contact person's name on it and her campus address and shipped it out by campus mail. Big mistake!! When the box had not arrived accross campus by Thursday we started to get a little worried. But when we called the mailroom they assured us that the box either was already delivered or would be very shortly. So we waited until this morning and still no box. After I left to gather supplies for the reception I got the call that someone in the mail room fessed up to having opened the box and redistributing all of the publications back to the authors. WHY? I have no idea. A quick call to Lyle, who was working in his office, confirmed that he had indeed just received his own publication back through campus mail to him. Aaaaargh. Now we were having a publication reception with no publications. Bad enough.

Now, given our quick change to nice weather I had to wait until just before the reception to pick up the fruit and cheese platters. Two large fruit and cheese platters were ordered more than a week ago. Guess how many were ready when I got there an hour before the reception? None! That's right now we had no publications and no food. I am ready to call it a day and go home. But they quickly threw one platter together and I grabbed boxes of cookies to supplement. When I got off of the elevator at the reception site in the library I had exactly 6 minutes to put everything together.

Luckily, my contact at the library had called all of the department secretaries and gathered about 1/4 of the publications to display at the reception. So it looked pathetic but at least there was something to look at. And the good thing about not getting all of the food that I ordered was that I had absolutely no leftovers to cart home. I am so glad this day is over.

Hello Xavier

I just caught the end of The Price is Right and the kid that won the showcase showdown did a shout out to all the musketeers from Xavier, Cincinnati.

No Game Show for Me

My cable bill went up. It was only $3.00 and even though it made me mad that they could just brazenly tack on $3.00 without any notification or anything, I just paid it and decided it wasn't worth the time and effort to spend half a day on hold just to complain.

Two days later, last Wednesday, I was working through my regular TV routine and Channel 15 didn't come in. That was the Game Show Channel. The was my refuge channel when all there was available on regular channels were talk shows and soap operas.

This was important enough to call. The girl didn't know why I was having trouble put me on hold several times and finally said someone would be out that same day.

Of course, they weren't. So when it still didn't come in the next day, I called back. This girl put me on hold several times and finally told me that the channel number had changed. Channel 15 was now channel 112. No longer available to me on my plan but if I would like to upgrade..... I was very angry.

I am a "go to sleep with the TV on" person and my late-night refuge is ESPN Classic. They play reruns of the World Series of Poker late into the night. That night as I turned on channel 35, all I got was fuzz..... I am very angry.

No Diet for Me

I can no longer stand the stress of being on a diet. When I decided a couple of weeks ago to be on a diet I forgot how weak-willed I was. Luckily I caught that mistake after gaining only 3 pounds. I got off the diet and the scale is back where it was.

Here's how it goes. I bought a couple bags of easter kisses when they were on sale, just to have around the house. Not on a diet - I would eat 3 or 4 or 10 every once in a while. On a diet - I ate the whole bag in one day because tomorrow I would have to start dieting for real. Of course, I wasn't any better the next day and the cycle started all over again with a little extra comfort food to make myself feel better about the discomfort that was about to start the next day (for real).

Since I'm not on a diet, there is no necessity of eating something right now, I can always have it later or tomorrow or the next day. I am at an age and a stage where I get along just fine letting my eating habits be governed more by indigestion than weight loss.

I've Been Tested

CBC my local Canadian TV station did a show called Test The Nation tonight. I took the test with them. It was a basic IQ test and any of you can take it by going to CBC.ca/testthenation. I think they said it would still be available on line.

Anyways, I am terrible at visual perception. Which shape goes next in a series. There were 12 of those and I got 7 of them wrong.

Another one I got wrong was: If this is Thursday, what is the third day after tomorrow? I would like to know who I can talk to to dispute their answer.

And still another I got wrong was which simple math problem had the highest answer and I picked 8 times 22. Well when it came time to see the answer it turned out it was 8 plus 22 and of course, was the wrong answer.

By their scoring system, which made allowances for age, my IQ is 124.

My Best Feature

Lungs. No I don't mean the outside curvey kind. I happen to have deep, well functioning lungs. Whenever I start to bemoan arthritic pains I take a deep breath and say "Man, that's living."

So, I'm in the dentist's chair. Nitrous Oxide attached to my nose and wondering, should I breathe deep or breathe shallow. Small shallow breaths get more nitrous more quickly, but deep breaths would hold some in reserve.

I'm telling you, my life is just one dilemma after another.

No Virus for Me

42:31 Those were the numbers on my phone's clock when I was finally connected to the next available service representative while trying to renew my Norton Antivirus subscription.

The background music was awful. After the first 17 minutes I stayed on for the sheer martyrdom of it. My hand fell asleep. Then my arm fell asleep. Then I fell asleep. The girl woke me up thanking me for my patience and letting me know that my call would be answered by the next available service representative. That message came on every 2 1/2 minutes so I couldn't get much sleep. Past the 30:14 mark I was getting pretty upset when the background music broke into "Cry Me A River".

That same message advised me to go to service.symantic.com for faster easier service. It never gave me a chance to say "Ha, I've been there, I can't do it."

But at 42:31 Asif, my next available representative came on and was very helpful. At least if I understood him correctly, he was helpful. He did my renewal (I think) and he charged $42.39 to my credit card (I think).

The only part of which I am really sure is that by 52:58 I was out of there.

And the Winner Is

What a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon. At the Movies. Well, we got there at about 10:00 AM and didn't get home till midnight so I guess it was more than an afternoon.

AMC Theaters were offering for $30.00 a whole day of movies as they ran all of the pictures that had been nominated as "best picture". This included all the popcorn and soda you could handle.

So, I am fresh from seeing all the nominated movies and by far the only one deserving of the title is Babel.

SDRAWKCAB

In my young single days there were among my circle of friends a group who spoke sdrawkcab. It seemed cute at the time and for a little while I tried to keep up, but it was just too much trouble.

And now the world is moving in that direction. Evidence??

For most of my life I have endured severe leg and foot cramps. In my sdrawkcab days I thought it was due to wearing high heels all day, every day. But somewhere in my late 30s high heels disappeared and cramps continued. The remedies were as many and varried as those for hiccups. They included, putting weight on it, walking around, jumping up and down, rolling like a log...All while trying to relax the offending muscle.

It wasn't until Papa died and we were going through his house and I came across some pills called Legatrin and I took them home and tried them. And, oh my God, they worked like a charm. The active ingredient was Quinine. Within a few months the product "Legatrin" became "New and Improved". Its new active ingredients were Acetaminophen and Diphenhydramine (Tylenol and Sleeping Pills). And no, it did not work.

I asked the pharmacist and he told me that Quinine had become a controlled substance and could only be obtained by prescription. No problem. My doctor wrote me a prescription and I was back in cramp free land. Somewhere in the middle 90s the FDA took it off the market completely (for my protection) and I was back to walking the streets at night. (My house was too small to walk very far very effectively) In 1997 the FDA had backed down and quinine was available again and I don't go anywhere without it.

Since my prescription is for enough pills for me to take one every night and I only take them when I actually get a cramp or feel one coming on, I have a backlog. I have recommended it to all my friends and have even given some away.

Now, comes a letter from my new prescription provider saying that the FDA has taken Quinine Sulfate off the market again and they will soon discontinue distribution of same. I didn't know how soon "soon" was so I quickly tried to refill my prescription. But, alas, too late. "Soon" had come. I called a couple of pharmacies and they are all out also. Believe me, I am hoarding my backlog.

Yesterday I got a letter from my old prescription provider with a little more information. It seems the FDA has recently approved a new manufacturer for quinine sulfate. They are the only approved manufacturer and have given it the brand name Qualaquin. There is no longer any generic quinine sulfate available on the market. A Brand name co-payment may be charged for all Qualaquin prescriptions. Qualaquin may, or may not be a covered drug on my pharmacy benefit plan.

Isn't that a little backwards?

Family visit

Mary's memorial provided us an opportunity for another family visit. As we gathered at her house we treated the occasion almost as though she were still there, commenting on the parts she would have liked and approved of, and the parts she would have disliked or been angry about. Including we, the family, there were upwards of 75 people that came to remember her, show each other their pictures and look at hers; or in some cases just to look around her house to which they had never previously been invited.

Then we had the side trip to Las Vegas. We excel at gambling side trips. I'm so glad we had Stephanie with us so that she could experience just how wacky her aunts and grandmother really are. I didn't want that part to come as a shock to her when she is caring for all of us in a nursing home. Yes, I said all of us. I have decided to wait until my daughters are old enough to enter a nursing home with me before I do it. I don't want to do that by myself. What fun would that be?

Birthdays

Happy Birthday to Adrienne

Happy Birthday to Karen


I won't tell how old Karen is but she was 14 years old when Adrienne was born.

Adrienne is a grandmother.

Its not that i believe that Sean is a slouch, but I'm just saying.

have wheels, will travel

I was ready for some wheels. The debate started about wheelchair vs scooter. There were a lot of negatives in a scooter, especially in Michigan weather. So I opted for a manual wheelchair.

It was much easier than I expected. I got a prescription for a manual wheelchair from my doctor. Then I did a little shopping on-line. Then I called Sears and got some information from them. They made it sound very difficult.

So I took my prescription where my doctor had said to take it. To the Durable Medical Equipment department of Garden City Hospital. Erika and Jackson were with me. The girl took my prescription, started a file on me, made copies of my insurance cards, filled out some paperwork, went into the back and brought out a wheelchair, said "sign here", and I was done.

She pointed out that it was a top-of-the-line wheelchair. Lightweight, nylon seat and back etc. It was the last wheelchair she had in stock. Medicare doesn't usually pay for one that good, but since it was her last one, they would have to.

The drill is that it is like a rent-to-own. Medicare will pay a rental for 10 months, and then if I still need it they pay it off. If I ever damage or lose it they will not buy another.

I asked her how much this chair would go for on the open marken and she said "an easy $2,000.00. In my on line shopping I saw scooters cheaper than that.

On the Road Again

In just a little while I will be on the road again.

After a flurry of cross comunication our travel plans seem to be set. We are travelling at different times and days but we will all be in California on the 4th for Mary's memorial service. Rita has been recuited for multiple airport runs. Have I mentioned how much we love her. I have Stephanie travelling with me on the 2nd so she will be there for any baggage handling and shoe removal problems.

Memorial service may be a misnomer for what's going on at Mary's house on Sunday February 4th since I don't expect there will be any kind of formal memorial readings or anything. It will be more of a gathering of friends and family to come together in one place to say goodbye.

Easy for us here in the East to just fly out there but those in California are faced with the task of dismanteling and settling her estate. Kathy is her executer but the legal part is just the beginning. The sheer volume of stuff boggles my mind.

Got Gas?

It will be one week ago tomorrow that Gretchen was all excited that she filled up her tank at $1.99.

Today I filled up at $1.84 and then later saw $1.81.

Good Job

Our ice-storm warning has been cancelled. Our little salt mobile just came through the parking lot and I am looking at tiny little icicles dripping from the bottom of my car. The trees are adorned with a layer of ice that looks beautiful. So then I started to look for icicles at the roof line of the houses. I used to get huge icicles hanging right above my porch that would drip down while the sun shined and then freeze on my porch where it was shady.

Not a single icicle do I see on any of the houses in my sight line. The new siding came with new gutters and boy are they working good.

Looking up

Near the end of my Florida visit in 2005 I had an episode of this same "back spasm". One of the remedies then was physical therapy which worked very well for me. On the first day of my last week of scheduled therapy the facility had changed hands and employees and the upshot was I didn't like any of them and never returned.

I went for my first appointment of this round of therapy and found that the therapist is the same guy I had liked at the other place. I am pleased as punch. He remembered me only vaguely but that was ok. I am scheduled for three times a week for four weeks.

Then, this afternoon I went for a cortizone injection. I was given a choice of locations, Nine Mile and Greenfield or Twelve Mile and Haggarty. I chose the Greenfield location since they could get me in almost two weeks earlier than the other one.

There was a little mapped diagram of the location that made it look like I could go right up Greenfield and turn left into the little black dot that was the Providence Pavilion Medical Facility.

Any of you old time Detroiters remember what is at Nine Mile and Greenfield. That's where Northland is. There are streets and drives and parking structures that don't appear anywhere on the little diagram. To say nothing of the strip malls and traffic. And to say nothing of the big black fence that encloses the Providence Pavilion. Once I found my way into the fenced area I find that there are about 20 parking places with additional parking indicated by an arrow that lead god-knows-where.

Rita and I were talking, when this was first scheduled, about days of yore when cortizone injections were administered in the doctor's office. I had gotten at least one in my back way back when Adrienne was a teenager and Rita had gotten at least one in her knee before her first replacement. Why, we wondered, did it now have to be done at a special facility.

I was lucky enough to get one of those 20 spaces and made my way to the proper office. Once in the inner-sanctum, the doctor indicated on my paperwork introduced himself to me and then to two other doctors. There was another woman there but she must have been a lowly technitian and wasn't introduced. They were all wearing those leaded x-ray aprons. It turns out this injection must be given while viewing the area through an x-ray machine. Who knew?

The main doctor, the only male in the room, was across the way in conversation while one of the females administered to me, explaining each step; this is going to feel cold; you're going to feel a pinch; there will be pressure. I had the feeling that this was a learning experience for the female crew.

Anyway, they did a bang-up job. Oh, yeah, everything still hurts but I have high hopes for the passage of time.

I am so easily amused

This is so funny. But you've got to be here to appreciate it. I am watching a workman out in front of my house. He is putting one sweatshirt over another and is obviously using my front window as a mirror. I know he would not be preening like that if he knew someone was watching.

I have been watching these aluminum siding guys work for a couple of months now. They are working on units a lot farther away from my house now. I can no longer even hear the hammering. However some of our parking lots have fewer empty spaces than this one and in front of my house seems to be a good spot for them.

There is one guy that works pretty steadily inside the truck bending pieces of aluminum. It is very interesting to watch. If he ever has to take a day off, I think I could fill in for him. Except I don't know how heavy those pieces are or how hard he has to press on that bendy thing.

Poked and prodded

I saw a Doctor today. My back which has been a pain for more than 30 years, has been what I describe to myself as "in spasm" since the middle of December. I called for an appointment with a Rehabilition Physician before Christmas and today was my lucky day. I had to settle for a Doctor I had never seen before because my favorite one didn't have an opening until near the end of January.

This guy was young with no discernable accent and I liked him very much. He set me up for a cortizone injection in my sacro-illiac this Thursday afternoon at Providence Hospital and several weeks of physical therapy which will start on Thursday morning at Progressive Rehab Network on Ford Road near Middlebelt.

I seem to be in good hands.

A Happy Camper

I have been messing around with home pages, bookmarks, tabs, contact lists --- its a big pain. Then I called AOL to cancel my dial-up service. I learned that I can still access my old aol page by just connecting to it only the dial-up is missing. I can keep my whold set up, tool bars, address books, email, everything. I love those people.

See how fast I am?

I am all loaded and up and running with ATT Yahoo DSL. It is a pain in the neck because I have to get used to new formats and new ways of doing things. But I am a smart resiliant old lady and I can get behind anything.

If each of you will send me an email, just changing the aol.com part to sbcglobal.net I will be able to get you into my new address book. Only we no longer call it an address book, now I have a contact list.

Ringing out the old

Let me be the last to say that I hope 2006 was a very good year for all of you and the first to say that I hope 2007 will be even better.

I am leaving this year as a slow dial-up user and will shortly usher in the new year as an always-connected user. Erika and Gretchen went through the order process for me when they were here and ordered ATT Yahoo DSL. The box of stuff necessary to implement the turnover arrived and is sitting by my front door. Whoever loves me the most or gets here first will hook it up.

Adrienne thought I should be brave and open the box, but I am pretty sure that the installation will involve pulling out the CPU to connect something at the back and that is beyond my ability.

I am seeing in the new year by watching a marathon of the 2006 main event of the world series of poker.

Wasn't that a party

Wow, what a gathering. We had 17 for actual dinner (not counting the birthday boy) and then 8 more came over later. I hope Erika will be posting a picture of the snowman cake that Gretchen made. Jackson was very excited. We lit the candles and started to sing. So of course it was time for him to hide behind his mother's knees. He came back out in time to blow out the candles and stayed out long enough to say "Let's do that again." So we did.

Pots and pans were cleaned last night. Dishwasher was run today. Rita just picked up her dishes and silverware that we borrowed and Gretchen's family just picked up all the extra cake, cookies and pop and they are heading back to West Branch. Erika should be on the plane right now and winging her way to California. The house seems very empty.

Steak and Shake

Erika mentioned to me on the phone how nice the lights were at the Toledo Zoo. However to a three year old boy the word zoo does not mean lights it means animals. Luckily there were enough animals visable and available to make him happy.


Gretchen's family will be in town tonight when Erika and Jackson get here and we will all go out to dinner. Megan and Melody are really looking forward to going to Steak and Shake and it occurs to me that we had better call it something else in front of the three year old or else he will be expecting to have steak. Which, of course, they don't serve.

Disregard previous post

Not the happy birthday part. I still want Marcel's birthday to be happy but I'm afraid I added a year to his age. He is bringing up the rear in the odd numbers department.

Even numbers

Happy birthday to Marcel. This year he drags us all back into the even number category. Yesterday we were all odd numbers starting with 67.

Two Down, One to Go

I have already seen two (count them, two) dentists this morning. The first one cleaned my teeth and it was just as horrid as I expected, but I am done with her for another three months. The second one was the guy at the other end of the building that will get the tooth I broke in California fixed. That was just as horrid as I expected. The good part is I just leave them my store-bought teeth and I don't have to sit in the chair while they fix it. The bad part is they needed to take impressions; top, bottom and bite.

Now this was the interesting part. I don't know if I have just never had a bite impression done before or if they changed the way they do it. The girl came at me with what looked like a caulking gun and squeezed some ooze on top of my bottom teeth and told me to bite down. We held that position for a couple of minutes and then she removed a cute little rubbery bite impression.

The tension of sitting in those dentist chairs for so long has my back hurting like I have walked a couple miles. Anyways, I have to go back at 4 pm to pick up my fixed teeth.

Christmas in the air

I went to a marvelous Christmas Dinner Party last night. From the lucious ham, prepared in accordance with an Alton Brown (Food Network) receipe, to the magnificent christmas tree, Martha would have been proud. Stephi, take a bow.

Unfortunately, Jackson showed signs of a slight fever in the afternoon but took a good nap. He was in a funk at the party but Jeff still managed to get smiles and giggles out of him and helped coax him to drink a little juice and eat some yogourt.

When we got home, Erika tood him right to the rocking chair and managed to get his coat off but not hers. He was really hot. We force-fed him some childrens ibuprofin and that made him cry hard enough to throw up all over Erika's coat and clothes. Erika calmed him down and managed to get out of the yucky clothes and throw a load in the washer. About an hour later he was willing to take a bottle and watch a video and go lay down in the bedroom. About an hour after that he was back in the living room and ready to play.

About 11:30 PM Erika gave up on getting him to sleep and decided to head for home. I'm afraid they left in a little of a hurry and I saw a barrel of monkeys still on the floor in Gretchen's room this morning. I hope they are both feeling OK today.

Wind and rain

While having breakfast at Denny's on Thanksgiving morning, Erika was amusing Jackson by blowing at him through a straw. He would raise his face and say "Ooo, wind". Then she did it again and he said "Ooo, wind". The next time he said "Ooo, that one was rain".

Sleepless nights

My recent trip to California has done a number on my jet lagged sleeping clock. I finally took a double dose of diphenhydremene last night and I slept very well. However there were all those other sleepless nights, like the one at the casino. If my body worked better I would have just gone back down to the casino and played till I got sleepy. But getting up and getting dressed (including shoes and socks) and walking to the elevator and then all the way down the hall to the casino; it all seemed like too much trouble.

So I spent the time translating nursery rhymes into French. The A B C song was pretty easy. After singing the alphabet in French I added:
Nous chanton les A B C
Prochaine fois voulez vous chantez.

Next I did Bah Bah Black Sheep but the French word for Sheep eluded me so I worked around it. I really needed it to be two sylables for it to work properly and yesterday I looked it up (keep in mind that my French/English dictionary is smaller than my IPod) and it is Mouton. Works well:

Mouton noir, avez vous de leine
Oui, monsieur, j'ai trois sac plein
Une pour moi
Une pour vous
Une pour les enfents qui reste chez nous
Mouton noir, avez voud de leine
Oui, monsieur, j'ai trois sac plein.

Absentee

I voted my absentee ballot before I left for California in October. Now I have been back for a few days and inundated with negative campaign ads on TV and found out all the bad things that have been done by the people I voted for. In their defense, their opponents are not any better.

No wonder people don't bother voting.

Letter from Aunt Julia

I got a call from Elise today telling me about a letter she received from Aunt Julia. Julia had written it in English and I think Elise had more trouble understanding it than if she had just written in French.

But the sad news was that Marie Clair passed away on 9/25. The way Julia put it was that Marie Clair started her journey to heaven on September 25th. She has finished her purgetory here on earth.

Marie Clair was the youngest of Grandpa Beauregard's sisters and suffered an anurism many years ago and has been living semi-vegitatively ever since.

Monique had a minor cerebral hemorage and is doing fairly well. She was at the hospital in Ste Hyasinthe (sp) but now she is at home with Mirielle who looks after her.

Julia herself and Aunt Alfreda are doing fine. They live in the same housing complex and are great company for each other.

I want to slap his face

Yes I do. The guy that put a bomb in his shoe. They should make him stand at the end of a security check-in line so that everybody going through that has to remove their shoes can slap his face.

That part of security check in can usually reduce me to tears. On a good day I can take off and put on my own shoes and socks but I need to sit on a bed or a couch to do it. Not standing up and not sitting in a straight chair and certainly not in a wheelchair.

I would never have thought 10 years ago that so much agility would be needed for such a basic operation

Hard to Blog

I found out that it is just as hard to blog when your life is full and exciting as when it is dull and boring.

So many things I thought I would blog about on my trip but before I got to the blogging point those things were old and new things were happening.

Anyways I'm home now. It is very quiet here. There is no little girl pointing her finger and saying "Doh". I miss her. I miss the big people too. Dog, not so much.

E E G

That's the most recognizable part of Caitlyn's singing her ABCs. She also does a recognizable 1 2 3. Its hard to believe that this child is not yet 11 mos. old.

Great Dinner

What a nice dinner we had yesterday. Everything went so well its hard to believe the kind of chaos that was going on the day before.

The ham was "monica-worthy" it was so good. The table setting and food presentation was "martha stewart-worthy" it all looked so beautiful. I was so proud of my daughters, my grandchildred and oh yeah, that little girl that kept us all entertained even at the dinner table as she slept in her chair at the table. Grandpa Taj took charge of keeping her face off the table and trying to keep her comfortable

The day before, Kathy was coming down with a cold and felt miserable. Adrienne worked as a volunteer at the consession stand for the PTA at the high school football game and came staggering in at about midnight shivering from cold and fatigue. Baby had a snuffely condition - cold? alergies? but enough to make her two favorite calming influences (bottle and binky) almost useless because she needed her mouth to breath.

Everyone rallied on Sunday and we had a marvelous dinner. John and Nancy were there and they haven't changed a bit. Nancy is just like Pat. Both of them still look like they are in their 50s. Not fair.

Call Me Ishmael

People say Mom and they are not talking to or about me. They say Grandma and they are not talking to or about me. I'm waiting for my new identity to emerge.

In the Caitlyn hierarchy I have moved up a couple of notches. That feels good. It's always nice to light up someone's face.

Caitlyn had a short and restless night, which means Ris and Adrienne had a short and restless night. Adrienne is taking time out from her cooking preparations to let Cait nap on her shoulder.

Being Here

Well I got here. Getting a wheelchair at the LA end turned out to be a pain. I think this is the first time I have de-planed into a gate that was crowded to the gills with people waiting to take off. There was no empty seat to sit down and wait for the wheelchair. I appealed to an attendant and he said the first row was for handicapped. I pointed out to him that the first row was full so he went to a lady who looked able bodied at the far end of the second row and asked her go give up her seat while I waited for a wheelchair. He came back and asked me if I could walk as far as that seat. I said yes, but not fast enough to beat the man who had just sat in it. He had to go ask the man to get up and I got the seat.

The first wheelchair that got there he comandeered for me when she was going to pick up someone else. So she came over and got me and tried to put me back on the plane. When she tried to enter the jetway, I said this cannot be the way to baggage.

As soon as we got close to baggage there was my Adrienne. Happy, happy, joy, joy. Now I felt at home.

Melody was at the house to greet me when we got here. The Adam got home shortly after that. Adrienne fixed a dinner for us and Kathy got home while we were eating. Melody's baby-daddy was late for dinner and he was unceremoniously given cold food and warm soda (pop) (or as they say in the south - ko-kola).

My first impression of Jon, what with his gracious acceptance of the fare offered and willingness to eat it, is that he may be a keeper.

Now for the hierarchy of Caitlyn. She prefers the dog to me. Although she did warm up to me enough at one point to be fascinated by a pattern on the sole of my shoe and come over and shake my foot for a while. Every once in a while she will toddle over to the dog and hug her and lay her cheek on the dog's back.

She prefers Melody to the dog. She prefers Adam to Melody. She prefers Adrienne to Adam and she prefers Marisa to Adrienne. But when Kathy is in the house everybody else turns to chopped liver. Who would choose chopped liver when there is ice cream on the menu. Certainly not a Van Houten.

I figured out that the legend of Adam and his devoted Aunt Kathy is what God reads to all the little baby souls as their bedtime story. Those babies are just lining up in heaven waiting to be sent into this family.

Kathy's not too shabby as a daughter either. She presented me with a gift when she got home last night. First of all it was in a cheese-it box and I thought they were cheese-its and put it aside. When she asked wasn't I going to open it I said not while I was eating dinner. She said it wasn't cheese-its for krise sake. It is soooo cute. It looked like one of those kleenex covers for a really wiered shaped box of kleenex. It wasn't. What it is is a cover for my brick (of the stubbed toe)

I can't wait to get home and put it on my brick. I will have to move the brick to the living-room side of the door so I will be able to look at it. It is decorated with the same little houses as the coasters she made me.

I have gotten shorter since the last time I was here. When I stand in front of Adam I am looking directly at whatever is printed on his tee shirt. He has to sit down if I want to make eye contact. I know y'all think its Adam that's getting taller but my shrinkage was also demonstrated when trying to achieve Adrienne's bed. She's sharing it with me as she has in the past and it seems like last time I was here I could just crawl in. This time I am looking around for something I can use as a stool.

When I shared a bedroom with Monica the background TV of choice was Fox News, here the background TV of choice is ESPN.

Adrienne is fixing us a ham dinner at Mary's house on Sunday and John and Nancy have agreed to join us. I'm really lookin forward to that and the rest of my stay here.

How Ready am I

My boarding pass is in my purse, my suitcase is in Rita's trunk and I am, in fact, typing this post from the front seat of Rita's car. She will come out about 7:00 AM to drive to the airport.

One of the statements in the above paragraph is a lie. Let's call it poetic license to demonstrate how ready I am.

Faith restored

I am in danger of having my faith is mankind restored. Well maybe not all of mankind but parts of commerce.

A few weeks ago my airline reservations for this trip to California got all messed up when Spirit airlines cancelled their flights on which I was scheduled to fly. The alternatives they gave me (overnight flights) were completely unacceptable and when I called them they were less than cooperative. As the clerk was enumerating my options I heard somewhere sort of behind a caugh the word refund. "That's what I want", I said "I want my money back". She agreed and less than a week later the refund appeared on my credit card. I was sooo impressed.

Now I get this message from aol about reduced fees and I can sign up for service that I understand to be comparable to what I have now (for which I have been paying about $240.00 annually since I first got it) for $9.95 per month. New rate to start at the end of the current billing period. I clicked the requisit square. My annual billing would have been beginning in February. Today I got a credit from aol which I assume covers the time from now until February. I am soo impressed.

Fretworthy

The person that cut my hair last week cut it way too short on the top and I have cowlicks sticking up all over the place - Fretworthy?

I found a bug in the carpet piece I keep just inside the door. It was the type of bug Megan called a roly poly. We found one like it in July when she was here. This is about the 5th one I've seen in the house since I moved in - Fretworthy?

Last Monday (9/11) I made a pot of soup called 15 Bean Soup. I had made this before and always omitted the garlic because I didn't have any. This time, I had allocated my overflow to Kelly and decided to follow the recipe. I bought some minced garlic. The package said that 1/2 teaspoon was equal to one clove of garlic. The recipe called for 2 cloves. I used one teaspoon. The house still smells like garlic - Fretworthy?

I sent in a reply postcard to TV Guide saying they could send me 8 free issues of their magazine. I had cancelled my subscription when they changed their format. After the free issues I am under no obligation to buy any more. All I have to do is write "cancel" on the invoice. The invoice may get here while I'm in California and go astray - Fretworthy?

I have only one bottle of ketchup. - Fretworthy?

The VCR in my kitchen is making funny noises as it records - Fretworthy?

My health plan is changing our prescription provider as of December 1st. When I get back from California in November, I will have to make a Doctor's appointment to renew my prescriptions before 12/1 - Fretworthy?

Holliday Park is throwing a thank you dinner for committee members on 10/7. They require that we send in a $10.00 deposit which is returned to us when we show up at the dinner. I don't want to go. Rita really enjoys those dinners and I usually go to please her. The deposit is due tomorrow. I'm not going to send it in. - Fretworthy?

Balanced toolbar

Thanks to Marcel my toolbar of favorite places is balanced. I still check Amanda's blog every day (at least on days that I am not rushed off my feet) and if she gets to a full year without updating I'm going to take her off my favorites. Then there will be another opening.

In other news. the tree out my living room window (of the red leaves) is starting to turn red again. Those clingy red leaves that refused to go away did finally become either gone or not visible among the greenery. Now all the leaves at the outside edges of the tree are red.

I am beginning to prepare in ernest for my three weeks in California that start on October 12. Ernest preparations at this stage involve more of a mindset that actual packing etc. Reservations are all in place and actual packing takes 20 minutes tops. Not counting the after-period wherein you start to think of all the things you forgot to put in. So, taking those 20 minutes a week or so in advance gives plenty of time for the afters.

The mindset involves fretting over all the things that could go wrong, or even if they're going right, at my age and condition many facets of travel are uncomfortable and/or painful. I need to have plenty of small bills for tipping. I need a wheelchair and a pusher at the Detroit end. I have plenty of pushers at the LA end.

I allow myself a few minutes every day to fret and then I go about my business.

favorite tools

First of all yeaa. My old format is back and I have spell check and preview on this page.

About the tools. I have these icons for each of your blogs and they appear on a toolbar at the top of my screen. There are an uneven number because there is room for six icons at a time. I check six blogs then move them all over and check the next six etc.

I mention this just in case one of my favorite brothers (you know who you are) decided to start blogging, I have an icon space available.

Homescan

I have in my kitchen a laser bar-code reader with which I scan everything I purchase. I do this for the A.C. Neilson Company. They collect the information (I report via that same gizmo by phone once a week) and probably sell it to merchandizers for tons of money. What I get out of it, besides the satisfaction and its kind of fun, is that I earn points for every week that I report. There are also bonus points for taking periodic surveys that they send in the mail and others that they ask us to take online.

I have approximately 150,000 points and I've never seen anything in their catalogue of prizes that I am interested in.

I got an email from them asking if I had any friends or family that might be interested in being contributors to this program. So if any of you are, just go to homescan.com and fill out the questionaire and they will contact you if they need a household like yours.

P.S. since Erika changed my format, I no longer have a spell check on new posts and I don't know how to get it back. I don't have a Preview either.

Life in the Dead Zone`

The dead zone I'm talking about is two toes on my right foot that due to back disks and nerve damage from years ago have been useless and have no feeling. They are the little piggy that had roast beef and the little piggy who had none.

Now flashback to a time when my darling granddaughter, Marisa, for some school or girl scout project made me a brick. Its painted white and has felt glued to the bottom and pretty pictures all around it. It has lived up against the wall in my bedroom until the time that I moved into this new unit.

Now, in order to keep my front door opened wide, I need a doorstop. Finally the brick can fulfill its destiny. And, its fair to say, part of the destiny of a brick doorstop is that someday, somehow, someone is going to stub a toe on it.

Well, I'm here to tell you that there is life in those dead toes. I just never dug deep enough before.

The AA show

Boy Andre Agassi is sure giving us tennis fans a treat this week. Whatever they are paying him, its not enough.