It's just another New Year's Eve, in a pandemic

 Way back when I used to work in the hospital, I'd work a lot of New Year's Eves. It satisfied my holiday requirement, paid time and a half, and we could see the fireworks in Philly from the higher floors of the hospital. Everyone brought food, and we tried to eat together.

Now we're usually in bed before midnight, and the idiots shooting off fireworks wake us up. The Impeached One's local golf course is thru the woods from us, and they do fireworks which we can see from our living room. 

Manda had told Amary about a pic we had of one of our past cats, Trouble, in a Barbie tent as a kitten. Of course Amary wanted to see it! I went thru every photo album and 5 boxes of pictures, but finally found it!

It was our first Christmas in this house, and Tee was only a few months old.

Here's an oldie! Every baby born between Xmas and New Year's got a huge stocking! Jeez, I was young! A month before my 22nd birthday. 

That was in 1974. Above is that baby's baby, Eddie, in 2003. 

Manda had just a few stuffies! Amazing that she left room for Steph to visit.

All grown up but so young! And our sweet Toast, the time share dog, LOL. She was Steph's, but spent a lot of time here, and we loved her so much.

So here's hoping for a better year in 2021!

December 29

 Today is our oldest daughter's birthday!

This beautiful woman is now 46! How did so many years go by so quickly? 

Because so many idiots insist on gathering and traveling, it's not safe for me to hug my baby today, and that totally pisses me off. I'll talk to her on the phone, and give her a virtual hug.

These guys are now slithering their way across the country to their forever home. Amary and Garrett have seen pix of their snakes, but I'm sure they have no concept of how long (over ten feet) the snakes really are. And, Ralph got me rattles on amazon, which I placed in them the final week,  so they are rattlesnakes! We mailed them yesterday, and I had Ralph get $500 of insurance on them. 

It's a beautiful day out, 37 and sunny. Ralph took the outdoor decorations down yesterday, while it was in the 40's. 

It was a sad day yesterday. Our longtime friend, Franny, lost her Jake to cancer. He died on his 92nd birthday, under hospice. Jake was a cool guy, with a gravelly voice, and he absolutely adored Franny (the feeling was mutual.) He died almost a year to the day after Gordon, the husband of Mary Beth and father of Gordanna. It's so hard to see close friends lose their loved ones. Cookie Swap now has two less members, and we mourn their loss.

Another Christmas!

 All the preparation, all the anticipation, then poof! it's over! What a strange Christmas it was. Christmas Eve we zoomed with everyone, or at least tried. Probably the entire world was zooming, and it was slow and choppy, and we gave up.

My Weather Channel app gives the temperatures ten days out, so I was able to finish Covid and Quarantina. I finished up at 10:30 Christmas Eve. I knew we were going to go see Heather and Ed and the kids Christmas morning for a short, masked, socially distanced visit to exchange gifts.

Eddie and Julianna were thrilled and amazed that their snakes were so long!

Julie got a dance bar, so Heather arranged the snakes so they can doo ballet!

Back home, we opened gifts from the west coast family. Amanda made this sweatshirt for Ralph!

She made me this snuggly cardigan! It has pockets, and the fabric has gnomes on it! 

Amary and Garrett chose this bird for me! When you press it's back, it sings! It's so cute. 

We had a quiet dinner, just the two of us. Ham slices, pineapple stuffing, and sweet potatoes. Best of all, enough so that we had the same thing on Boxing Day. 

When we went out on Christmas morning it was 62 degrees. By Christmas night it was 25 degrees! It rained and was windy Christmas Eve, so we were lucky it wasn't snow. 

For tonight's dinner, I have sauerkraut in the crockpot. I add a small cup of applesauce and cook it all day- yum! I'll add hotdogs the last hour, and it's a quick meal that we have maybe 4 times a year. It's at Ralph's request. 

Goals for today are to work on the WA snakes, so I can get them done and mailed. 

I'm still here!

 It's been somewhat of a trying time. I finally had the ablation for atrial flutter done on December 10, which was the first available time. It went well, and I came home that night. I broke out in huge hives on my back, where plastic pads had been placed for the procedure. I took a lot of benedryl, and called the doc in the morning. He put me on a steroid pack, which cleared it up.

I had a brainstorm, and since I was on the steroids, I went and got a flu shot for the first time in over 20 years (severe local reactions the last times I had one.) It worked, I had no issues with the shot, which made me happy. 

I have a device implanted which monitors my heart, and sends the info every night and if there are any issues, the doc is notified. 

Thanksgiving sucked. First time ever it was just Ralph and I. Too risky to go anywhere.

November 22 was Joseph's birthday. Our second of his birthday's without him. That sucked.

Snakes! All up to date as of mid December! I'm already planning who gets snakes next year, it will be my two little great nephews, Ben and Joey. 

I made cookies! Oatmeal raisin and they're delicious!

Cross stitch! When I finish this page, I will be 25% done of the main picture!

OMG, this girl! The picture of her mom and cousin! Such a beauty!

And her adorable brother!

Our favorite nurse, all geared up. She's so pissed at people who won't mask, and insist on traveling and having gatherings. 

Yes, he is deranged. But he's cute.

My grand cat Squeaky, helping Manda and Ben decorate.

Julianna or Amary? LOL, it's Amary.

And it's the day after Solstice, so we start to gain a minute of daylight per day. I'll take it! 

Our Christmas plan is to go to Heather's for an hour, stay masked, do gifts and leave. Sucks. 

And every year I say I'll do better at keeping the blog up to date. Maybe 2021 will be the years!

A new beginning!

 The four year nightmare is soon (but not soon enough!) to end, with the election of Joe Biden. The reign of terror of #3 has shown me the bad side of so many people, and it's so disheartening to see that so many are racist, or that racism isn't a deal breaker, or that having babies stolen from their parents is acceptable. So many people who I can no longer have any respect for, and don't want to have much of a relationship with. "But Obama did...." seems to be a common bullshit factor in their reasoning.

The pandemic is worsening, despite #3 insisting he has it under control. He has cost me valuable time with my children and grandchildren. He has made me leery of going places, shopping, eating out, and seeing people. 

I was a lifelong Republican, mainly because my parents were. My mom and I changed our party to Democrat in 2016, when he ran for president. We were amazed and horrified when he actually won. Not that we really wanted Hillary, she was a terrible candidate, and the Dems should have known better. I do blame her on Obama. 

It staggers my mind that so many people voted for him this year, even with all we know about him. And so many claim to not be racist, but they overlook the racism of him and his followers. 

I am sad and bitter over what he's done, and my fervent hope is that he is prosecuted and spends the rest of a long life poor and alone. 

Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but that doesn't mean that I have to have any interest in it.

Sunday morning

This morning  the weather showed on my app as unhealthy air quality for sensitive people- maybe because of the cold? It was 39 this morning! We caved in and turned on the heat yesterday.

Sisters! My Aunt Pat, Aunt Bet, and my mom! I put it up on Facebook, and my Aunt Lena identified it as being taken at a bridal shower for her sister, my late Aunt Mary. 

Snakes! Up to date as of October 11! We finally went down to Heather's on Thursday to give Eddie his birthday gifts, and took Covid and Quarantina with us, since the kids hadn't seen them for almost 2 months. We gave Eddie a heated seat pad for his truck, a bag of Goldfish crackers, and money. He had just had his first day of in person school, first in person day as a senior, and as a driver to school! He said it was awesome to drive to school and show off his truck. 

Another page of the cross stitch done! I have enough done on the right side that I put it back up onto the frame. I'm quite impressed with it! There's a lot of confetti on some pages, which makes it slower going. I'm averaging 2 weeks on a page.

This week I see my primary, my NP, and the following week I see the cardiologist to hopefully set a date for the ablation for the atrial flutter. And Ralph was discharged by ortho, which is fabulous. He has his last PT tomorrow.

A beautiful month

 I love October, and fall. The awful heat and humidity is gone, and the leaves are starting to turn. I hate that it's getting dark earlier and earlier. 

I bought an Apple Watch! I got the 6, the newest one. I can do an EKG, check my pulse, and it even has a pulse ox! I love the red! And good thing I listened to Julianna and got a new phone, because my old phone wouldn't have been able to synch to the watch!

I found out from Tervis' Facebook page that if the cups develop a film inside, you can send them back and they move the image to a new cup as part of their warranty! You can send back 6 per day!

We got our ballots, filled them out, and returned them to the board of elections office, which is close to us. 

Then we went to Christmas Tree Shop, and to lunch at Outback. It's only the second time we've eaten out since March! Fondue on a boomarang for dessert! Strawberries, pineapple, butter cake and brownie bites, with melted chocolate and whipped cream to dip them in! Of course we shared, and brought home some of the brownies bites.

I had the echo done last Friday, and I assume it was fine, since I haven't gotten any calls from the cardiologist.

We went food shopping yesterday. Today I'm back to my usual routine of reading and working on my counted cross stitch while watching TV. We just got a new big TV for the family room. Ralph wanted a smart TV for in there. We ordered it Monday night, and it came yesterday! We love amazon!

October is here!

 The leaves are starting to turn, it's getting dark earlier, and the nights are definitely cooler! Cold enough to close windows most nights.

It was national daughter's day, so I put this pic on Facebook. It's my favorite pic of the three of them together. They were laughing at Ed, who was playing photographer and joking with them.

Taco Tuesday! We don't care for the shredded lettuce, and we use salsa instead of chopping tomatoes. I've been buying several pounds of ground beef at the Amish market, browning it, and freezing it in bags of one pound. So to make tacos I only have to dump a pound from a bag into a ceramic bowl and microwave it for 3 minutes, then transfer it to a pan, add the taco seasoning and water, and the taco mix is ready in a few minutes. Easy and so good. We get two full meals from a pound of meat

My project is moving right along! It's going to be so beautiful when it's done!

It's actually going to overfill the Aida cloth, so I'm going to make a triptych out of it. It's the biggest project I've ever done and I'm planning on it taking a year or so. I'm doing it on 18 count, using 3 strands, and half cross stitch. 

Snakes are done thru September 30! Of course Ralph had to pose them, he has fun with them. They are probably 7-8 feet long already, and we have 3 full months to go! Ralph bought me a package of rattles, so I can make them into rattlesnakes if the kids want.

Today I have an echocardiogram, and I have a consult with the ablation doc the end of this month. I want to get this show on the road, before flu season and covid season intersect. I'm actually going to get a flu shot this year, after 20 or so years of not. The last 3 flu shots I got, I had increasingly bad local reactions. After I had the last one, I showed the school doc, and he advised me to go sit in the ER if I had another one! So I've avoided them. 

Ralph had a stress test, and it was normal, which is a relief. And his PT and meds are handling his back/leg issue well. 

And that's the way it is!

What a month!

 Some good things, some bad things.

This guy had a birthday! 72, can you believe it? He's modeling the lined flannel shirt that I gave him, and he picked out. He's been having problems, right leg/back/knee pain. Saw ortho, meds, MRI, PT. Narrowing of the spinal area, arthritis. He's doing much better than he was, but taking it a little easy. 

Covid and Quarantina, along with their PNW cousins, are done thru mid September! Already taller than Ralph, and 3.5 months left to go! Ralph had the idea of putting rattles in when I get near the end! I have to check with the kids. 

I spent 4 days in the hospital, boo. I had an episode of atrial flutter, which is like atrial fib, but the other side of the heart. It took 12 hours and a bunch of IV meds to get me back into sinus rhythm! Doc wanted to start me on sotolol and eliquis til we can get an ablation set up, and because the med can cause ekg changes, they wanted me on a monitor for the first 5 doses, which meant staying in the hospital. It wasn't bad, they had me in the intermediate ICU, which meant a private room. 

Hospital food has come a long way! The fruit was fantastic, and the soups tasted home made. The staff were all competent and friendly. Of course, I was still happy to come home! I see my cardiologist tomorrow, and will see when an ablation can be scheduled. 

I'm binge watching The Office, on the advice of Julianna. I'm up to season 5. It's good background for when I'm cross stitching or crocheting. It's a good escape from the real world. In the real world, the election terrifies me- I can't wait til it is over, and the nightmare ends! I was Covid tested in the ER, and I'm negative, which is good. 

Our library is open inside part of the time! Not that I'm a browser, except for the new fiction. I request online, and pickup. My current series reads are by Preston and Child, and Deborah Crombie, and Ellen Hart, and Cleo Coyle. I request two from each series at a time. 

Yesterday Eddie turned 17, passed his drivers test, and took the SAT's! 

And that's my corner of the world.

September Morn!

 The light is already different, and it's dark noticeably earlier. 

I'm glad to see August leave.

Tina died. She'd been fading away, the vet said renal failure, and we knew the end was coming. But we're still so sad. Ralph was her person. She and her brother Sly came to us when they were ten, from a friend of a friend who had to move. So she was with us about 8 years. We had her cremated, and she's now on the mantle with Sly.

This was about a week ago, I'm almost done another page. It's moving right along!

Snakes as of mid August, I have to spend some time on them. 

Yum, meat loaf, mashed potatoes and carrots. 

Eddie decided he wanted to build a computer. Heather advised him to check with grandpa before buying any parts. Naturally, Ralph had everything he needed in the basement! He's so happy with himself!

The day they came for computer parts, Eddie and Jules snuggled with their snakes!

Our new freezer finally came! Lots bigger than the old one, and more energy efficient.

Jules told me that my phone was ancient, and I should get a new one. So I got an iPhone 11, and it's a lot of changes. Good thing I have tech support, aka Ralph. She also told me that I have to watch the show The Office, because it's the best show ever. I have my doubts that it can beat West Wing or MASH, but I'll give it a go. 

We've spent a lot of time in doctors' offices, this time for Ralph. He saw ortho, had an MRI, saw ortho again, and is on an anti-inflammatory for his back pain, caused by a disc issue. He also saw my cardiologist for a baseline visit, since Frank had to get a pacer. My doc sees no concerns at the moment, but wants him to have a stress test, which is the end of this month. 

It's such a good time to be retired, with COVID. I can't even imagine how schools will be. My grandchildren's schools are starting out virtual, which is a relief. Thanks to our Governor Murphy, jersey is in good shape. In house dining is permitted as of today, but we'll pass. 

I'm totally stressed over the upcoming election. I go back and forth between being sure Biden will win, and terrified that there are enough stupid people to re elect #3. At this point I have no respect for anyone who supports the orange grifter. I may still love them, but no respect. He's so awful, and so divisive. Now he's suggesting to his supporters that they vote both by mail and in person. And Barr isn't sure that's illegal- he needs to be disbarred. Ugh, rant over.