Lovely Monday the 11th day of October

[Birdie]

Is a nice sunny day in northern FL. Judy, send me a PM on where and when you will be in Valdosta. I will see about meeting up with you. My dermatologist is there so I get there at least twice a year. This year I have been 3 times with another visit scheduled in Nov. it’s a nice small city. Have been cleaning up the RV from my Texas trip. Need to get it done and back in storage. Peggy, I too will be interested if the borders are open. The one I normally use the the Rio Grand Valley has been iffy on going both directions. I didn’t make it to the dentist while in TX. I am going to Pepe’s for Mexican lunch. Was going to work at the office this morning, but missed that chance as it is 10:00 now and lunch is at 11:00.

Have a great safe day.

[Bethers]

Morning Birdie and all who follow.

Just getting ready for work. Brrr. It's 31 degrees right now. Shouldn't complain as it might not get any higher than that tomorrow with lows in the teens next few nights. I plan to eat my potato soup tomorrow and make the air fryer chicken pot pies. Need good warm stuff in my belly. Today will make it into the 50's and mostly sunny, so should be nice when I get off work. Get through to the weekend and back to normal, hopefully for the rest of the month until I hit the road.

Sheila, it's good to hear your Mom is doing better. I sure hope that continues and that you get to see that baby! I think you'll like having a car to get around in while in Q. I need to update the Texas gtg page as I'll be there mid March now. Would be great if you could be there.

[BarbaraRose]

Good morning gals! I am curled up under the blankets here with Lola. I have all the windows open in the house and it is a bit chilly in here! Feels good to cuddle in the warm blankets! Sunny, no wind, and the birds are chirping!

I found a medium sized battery operated fan yesterday (from my tent camping days) that fits in my bedroom window perfectly! The batteries were still good so I ran that on low all night to bring in some of the cool air since there was no wind. I also found a brand new, never opened, kitty hammock that fastens to a window with large suction cups! Lola will love that! I gave a large brand new cat bed to my neighbor for her new kitty.

Supposed to get high winds later this afternoon after 1pm lasting until early tomorrow. Gusts over 50 mph . Will have to keep the windows closed with that. I think it is supposed to stay cooler today and thru the week here.

Am anxious to finish up my porch project today! I feel like Sue now! Lots of energy and motivation! I hope I can hang on to that for awhile and get stuff done around here. Still quite a few projects to get too. I made a list last night of things around here that still need to be done and it filled up a whole page! One thing at a time...

I wore my super-duper wrist brace over night and it feels much better this morning. Will wear the smaller one today while working, along with my knee brace. Just keeps everything secure while moving around a lot. I have two large bins full of braces for all my joints! I need to go thru them and narrow them down a bit.

Have a good day!

[BirdbyBird]

From reading some of the travel posts I gather that though borders are closed for cars, airports are not necessarily closed for travelers to come in by plane. I am sure Peggy has done her research and knows what the possibilities and roadblocks are. Remember her mentioning leaving vehicles at home.

[Acadianmom]

The cool temperatures sound nice. It's in the 80's still here and only got down to 74 over night. Sugar got me up at 7:00 and now I'm ready for a nap. It looks like it's going to rain so decided I better mow Sugar's yard. Of course the push mower wouldn't start. I wrestled with that thing and finally figured out that dried grass wouldn't let the blade turn. I shouldn't be pulling on that thing with my bad shoulder. I will be paying a price for that. I need to give that mower to my son and get an electric one. Her yard is too small to get the riding mower in.

I took some Tylenol before I went to bed last night and I slept better. I think my arm is sorer for the booster shot than it was for the first two. Hope that means it's working.

Barbie, wish I had your ambition for cleaning. I need to go through the stuff in the old house and fill the trash can every week now that it's not 100 degrees. A few things could probably be donated.

Birdie, Mexican food sounds good. I'm trying to decide whether to join the Meetup group on Thursday or go to the lake. The campground where the Belles are camping is full. I'll have to see if the neighbors are going to be home. Sugar would love to go camping.

Martha

[JudyJB]

Beth, my carpal tunnel problem on my right wrist was so bad I could hardly use a mouse, and that was a big problem since I was teaching at the time. It ached most of the time and made it hard to sleep. Also, could not fasten water hose without using a wrench. It had been bad for quite a few years, so I was glad to get the surgery.

Also, my first two shots made my arm sore for a couple of days each time, but the booster was an entire week, but I was glad because that meant my body was reacting to it.

I turned in my rental car this morning and now need to complete and submit my expenses for visiting my aunt and looking at potential memory care facilities. I won't submit my camping and regular expenses, but we two POAs do get reimbursed for extra expenses. Old Federal is a lot quieter today, even if it is Columbus/Indigenous People's Day. I almost fell asleep in my chair a few minutes ago, but I won't take a nap because I need to get to bed early today so I can get up early tomorrow to begin my drive to southern GA--days are getting shorter and want to make a couple of stops on the way. Will be there only four nights and then head to Fort Clinch SP. Looking forward to being on the ocean for a couple of weeks.

[OregonLuvr]

Good afternoon. Just been fiddling around in the house doing a few light chores. Then needed to food saver my hamburger and ribs I bought the other day. Trying to eat the older stuff out of the freezer first. My freezer is pretty full so I need to start being a little more diligent on the older stuff. I always date it and try to put the new on the bottom of my basket of meat but that doesnt always work so well LOL I got on the scale today and somehow I have gained 3lbs. I was wanting to lose 7 and now it is 10 YIKES so need to get a handle on that. Back to healthy eating!!!!! So for dinner will have a small pork cube steak and some fresh beets. Also doing the intermittent fasting again. Not eating after 5pm and eating breakfast no earlier than 8am. AND absolutely NO snacks. I am not dieting I am just going back to eating more healthy foods.

Think I will have a cup of sugar free hot chocolate with only a FEW marshmallows, that should hold me until dinner. I will get back in the swing of it just need to exercise my willpower. Especially since the cooler weather will be here and I wont be outside as much. Only 57 here today and a frost warning for overnight.....yup fall is here.

[chalet05]

Good afternoon,

Alright, Karen, my word from you yesterday was loll, but really - willpower?? I was actually doing well until I forgot things at the grocery store. Cupboards are pretty bare, but daughter is picking me up to get my car after work today. I left my wire cart in the car so getting groceries from vehicle to the apartment hasn't been the easiest. I'm not one for making little trips to the store.

Landscapers were here, but I think all they did was plant more bushes. I bought a shelf at Hobby Lobby a couple of months ago. I ran into issues with the place I wanted to hang it. With sore shoulder, I've just left it alone. 2nd choice of location turns out to not work so now I have no idea! Bummer. My brother turns 65 today and he was thrilled his FB birthday greeting from me contained a picture for many years gone by - not.

Sheila, good your mom is doing better! My grandmother always said she wasn't hungry, but she made herself eat (she lived alone until she fell at about age 97) . I think my aunt is a bit the same way now.
With so many of us having aches and pains, I don't know if I mentioned I bought a massage gun from Amazon - Toloco brand. Physical therapist used one on me and we saw someone using it on one of the football players a few weeks ago. Got one for the kids, too, and we all love it. Was about $75.

[Acadianmom]

Anita, I'll know I have a problem if I'm never hungry and have to make myself eat. That has never been a problem. I have 7 pounds that I have been trying to lose but it keeps finding me.

Martha

[BarbaraRose]

I am exhausted! I worked hard again today. I finished cleaning the porch getting as much dust off of everything as I could. Then moved in a large rug and my two saucer chairs for a sitting area with the love seat for guests. The other side of the porch, I have my gourd project table and plastic drawer bins for supplies along that wall. I put some other bins in there with stuff I organized yesterday. Once I have more room in the shed, I will move it in there. But overall, the porch is very comfy and livable and lots of room to move around, unlike before. Still have some stuff to go thru out on the deck, just misc stuff I have to figure out what to do with yet. I got the driveway cleared out except for throw rugs that I hosed down good to get the dust out. They are still out there to dry out... I loaded all the garbage and unwanted junk this morning into my Jeep to take to the dumpster. However the dumpster was packed full and overflowing. So I went to check out the others around the park and found the same thing. I went home and waited all day to see or hear the garbage truck but nothing. I guess they get Indigenous People's Day off too so it is all still in my car Hope they get here before I leave for work tomorrow!

Also had a small tragedy today. (Warning!! If you are squeamish, don't read this!)
I had taken my larger rug that was rolled up in my porch all summer and opened it up on the driveway to air it out. Later, I decided to bring it in and put it down on the porch floor. As I rolled it back up on the driveway, I found a tiny baby gecko writhing under the rug!!! It was in bad shape and it's tale had come off! Strangely, the tail was still moving too! I had to end his suffering ASAP! I went in and grabbed a fly swatter and came out and swatted him (didn't want to squish him just kill him). He layed still. Really strange, was as soon as I killed him, his tail stopped moving too! How did the detached tail know he died?? Anyways, I was grossed out and heartbroken over it . He must have gotten in the porch and crawled inside the rolled up carpet and when I unrolled it on the driveway, he got injured. I have only seen two geckos around here. One was that itty bitty one I found in the house last year that I released, and now this one.

About 1:30, the winds hit with a vengeance! Over 50 mph wind gusts! Had to make sure everything was either inside or secured outside. The forecast said there was a 40% chance of rain, which around here means "no chance in hell to see even a drop!" so I didn't think much about that possibility until I saw clouds moving in. About an hour later, the sky to the north was black! I scrambled to bring in stuff that can't get wet. Looks like a big storm coming soon. The winds are still very strong and loud. I closed all the windows in the house and out on the porch to keep the dust from blowing in.

Still have to finish a few things yet but I have accomplished a lot in just 3 days! Still need to go thru stuff out in the shed when I have time and also in my storage unit. But now I have a nice porch to enjoy and also be able to work on my gourd art in (that stuff still needs to get organized better).

I am sore and very tired tonight. By 3:00 today I was done! "No more!", according to my mind and body! I took Lola out on the porch but the wind was whipping the branches from the tree out back, on the roof and was howling, which scared her so she wasn't too impressed. She will like it once things calm down tho. I will put that kitty hammock I found yesterday, on the main window for her. I will also put her litter box out there. Also need to make the cat door for her to come and go from the porch.

Tomorrow I will start work at noon instead of 1:00. I also found out that CA is sending out another $600 stimulus check soon! That will surely help! That will pay for my first half taxes and the registration for my car.

Going into the week with a big sense of accomplishment and relief!

Oh yeah, I checked in with Linda. She was released from the hospital on Tuesday and is now in Iowa. She had her sodium levels all messed up from Covid which caused her to start talking crazy and not making sense, and that was when her friends and co-workers told her she needed to go to the hospital. I am not sure if her sodium levels were really low or really high, but either way, the mortality rate for either is much higher, so she is really lucky! She is on meds to control it yet and is seeing her regular doctor this week and maybe a specialist too to see what they can do about it. Another strange side effect of Covid! Here is a link describing how sodium levels affect a Covid patient...
https://www.verywellhealth.com/sodium-l ... ns-5115005

Barely 7:30 and I am ready to go to bed! I can still hear the wind but so far no rain

Edit... just after posting this, I heard rain drops on the roof!! About 3 minutes later, it was done.

[snowball]

you know each day is different I go into see mom today and notice that she is hooked up to a catheter hmmm she has been on this thing called pure wick not sure where it resides but sucks up the urine into a container I noticed yesterday that the out put was very low... so perhaps that is why the catheter because it's out put is much better and very cloudy looks like some sort of tea... so then they bring in a IV pole and hook up a bag a med's she had been getting that via tablet guess she needed a bit stronger med for this bladder infection... so then pt comes in and proceed to get her out of bed she walked some sorta then off to the shower then they helped her get into bed but from the right side of the bed which is the side that she hurt... Pt said they won't do that side again... but finally get her into bed tried putting her on her side but when I got ready to leave she was hurting so bad that I stopped by and told the nurse that that position wasn't working for her... so very sore... so guess it's good then not so good... she is on this switch bed program... so that is good... just hope that she gets stubborn where it's needed like in trying to do her best so she can get out of the hospital... they also put compression socks and that machine on her oh my
went to the store and got stuff for a pot luck tomorrow was suppose to be to celebrate her birthday as well as other's in church whose birthday is in Sept and Oct... going to make this Winter fresh fruit salad... at least that is what I got to make
then actually got to watch NCIS and Hawaii NCIS and now ID was going to watch Murder She Wrote but I could remember it so not been that long since I've seen that episode
it's suppose to rain/snow tonight... so not looking forward to it... not at all
Beth I enjoyed watching that feel better about stuff video how neat to do to help those who were victims before doing the unthinkable...
you all have a great day
sheila