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Good Sunday

So what good stuff happened this week that you want to share?
I’m trying to think, but basically I worked my ass off and nothing bad happened. So that’s good.
What about you?

62 Responses

  1. DH and I along with DD and her partner visited DDs in-laws in Leeds who we like a lot.
    For anyone who’s seen the ad where the Range Rover drives up the stairs of an imposing house? We walked up those stairs.
    So far my new hip is holding up to British stairs and long walks.
    The court appointed a guardian for the daughter in the care of protective services for the next year (statute requires annual checks). I will get details tonight including whether they can now prevent even supervised visits by her mom. No word yet on criminal prosecution of mom.

      1. Oh absolutely. At least for the next year mom can’t persuade daughter she is dying and can’t consume food—or whatever the next fatal idea would be . We are thrilled.
        We are trying to find the exact address for the son who lives in California and who mom has told he must go on a liquid diet because even though we have the apartment building protective services needs the apartment number to check him out.

    3. For now mom has supervised visits but the guardian can reduce them or end them if she believes they are problems.

  2. Having the capacity to work is in itself a good thing!

    A friend came and gave me a hand with some house stuff that needs two people, and we rewarded ourselves with some very yummy food at a nice restaurant. So that was really good.

    And the UN adopted the Equal Earth projection to replace Mercator, a change I’ve been wanting ever since I saw the map episode of West Wing (although that was the Peters Projection)😊

  3. The IT band injury I got doing an otherwise lovely yoga class is finally starting to improve and I’ve been able to go back to taking walks. They vary in length and speed, and some days are better than others, but I was really frustrated not being able to walk while it was still nice outside, so that was happy. (It doesn’t help that I’m dealing with my worst fibro flare in years, which aggravates everything plus makes me tired.)

    I’m slowly (see above) starting to get back to work on the 2nd cozy. Baby steps, but that’s better than no steps.

    Otherwise things have been a little trying, but I’m hanging in there, and that’s good stuff, comparatively speaking.

    1. Oh, I forgot, I took an entire back-of-the-car load of various things to donate to my local independent animal rescue’s thrift shop. (I save all the best stuff for them, as I’m continuing to clear out my house. A giant box full of lovely hand-crafted pottery, glassware, all sorts of other things.) It feels great to help an organization I love (my good clothes, which I’m also weeding seriously, go to the local Hospice thrift shop) and it also feels great to have it all out of my house. I’m just baffled by how full all my cupboards, shelves, closet, and walls still are even after multiple purges. Does this stuff reproduce when I’m not looking?

      4. I think stuff just compresses like tetris and when you remove something, it bounces open and fills up the space

  4. On Tuesday, I saw the surgeon for the pre-op check and nothing had changed- no worsening and no miracle cure. He handed me a letter and request for lots of information and an EKG to give to my PCP and said I must see her before the surgery. This wad when there were four business days left before the surgery.

    I was able to see my PCP, who is new to me, and she had me sign four release of information sheets for my former PCP and two cardiologists, including one for the surgeon. Everyone in that office was astounded that he waited until a week before the surgery to ask for this stuff. I was angry. I’m still angry, because the surgery next Tuesday is up in the air. I have waited 3 1/2 months for this, and at the last minute he pulls this on me? I called the medical records people for the cardiologist who took the EKG this summer and they promised to rush it to the surgeon. I actually got to talk to a real person. I had to pay out of pocket for that EKG, and it was fine. I don’t need another one, and I don’t want to pay for another one.

      1. Thanks. Deborah. I would give him a piece of my mind but he’s the only one who can do the surgery to correct my double vision. I need his good will.

        1. Fortunately, I don’t think administrative skill and surgical skill are closely correlated. And presumably it was not the surgeon himself but some office person that screwed up on not having your paperwork squared away. They probably worked for the surgeon so he gets partial blame, but still.

  5. My book group discussed John Irving’s Queen Esther at book club this week. It wasn’t a favourite. However, we’ve realized that the more popular the book, the shorter our discussion. Conversely, more controversial books, like Queen Esther, yield interesting and thoughtful conversations. As usual, dinner and the company were great.

    My garden is slowing down but still getting beans and tomatoes. The nasturtiums are still going strong — very happy due to all the rain we’re received this summer.

    My city has an established writer’s festival. I joined this year (to see Rachael Reid of HR fame) and this week, signed up for several other events in October. I get in free. The tickets are reasonably priced so friends are happy to come with me.

    1. Susan, I’ve also noticed the the books that not all members like often inspire the most interesting discussions. (Assuming that by popular you mean among members, not among the general public.). Sometimes, however, there can be a lot to say about even a unanimously liked book.

      After I looked up Irving’s Garp book mentioned below I looked up Queen Esther too, and I think I have been correct (for myself) in avoiding Irving’s work, and I see absolutely no reason to try him now.

      1. I was a big John Irving fan was I younger. The World According to Garp and Cider House Rules are wonderful books. Not having read any of his books for many years, I can say that Queen Esther contains many elements I love about Irving’s writing and just as many that annoy me. Regardless, I admire Irving for continuing to write and publish when many writers would be content to rest on past glories. I hope that I can still write intelligible sentences/paragraphs when I’m 86.

  7. I finished a substantial rewrite of the last-completed novelette in my Sierra Foothills series (well, “finished” is a friable concept, but you know…) and also the complete draft of the concluding novella. So it was a good writing week. 🙂

    Aside from that, I got through another check-in with my manager without screaming at him about why our group cannot stop hemorrhaging staff (the reasons seem obvious to me, but then I did manage a firm for 8 years).

    Also made contact with the county library – in which I have still not stepped foot after 51 weeks in residence here, mostly because a) I read ebooks and don’t mind paying for them, also b) the library’s many activities are all scheduled during my working hours – about donating books. It was a timely contact because they are gearing up for their annual Friends store sale / fundraiser.

    And finally, made contact with the small publisher who released an anthology 3 yrs ago with one of my stories, about reversion of rights; they are now out of business, reversion confirmed in writing, now I can decide if I want to self-release the story (probably will).

    1. At least locally, the hassle in maintaining a library card just so that I can borrow ebooks is minimal. In the case of one county system, I had to fill out some forms on line once. Period. Another county makes me drive seven miles every three years and show up in person to prove that I still live in the area.

  8. Enjoyed taking looking after BIL’s cats for a week, now enjoying being done.

    During a morning walk, the sun was making the soybean field glow. We are so thankful that our 70 house subdivision is across the (dirt) road from a farm. Long may they continue. There is something restful about corn fields to me.

    I was tempted by cinnamon rolls, my guests did not eat as many as expected of the chocolate ginger cookies I made, and my dear sister brought me a few chocolate chip cookies. I have SO many baked goods!

  9. A good day on Friday:
    We finally went on a culinary guided tour – all 6 of us. It was meant to be my father’s b’day present but we never found the time, so did it on his b’day this year. Perfect weather, everyone in a really good mood, very nice tour guide. Sadly, I noticed belatedly that my shoes were not up to 4 hours of walking and made my plantar fascitis worse (only one foot affected, but thanks to these trainers, I felt like a 100 years old in both feet).
    A very nice end to close the afternoon: kiddo # got an alert that the NHL tickets were now available: We got nosebleed tickets for the four of us for two games at the Bell Centre: on my b’day the Habs play against the Blackhawks, two days later against the Bruins. Up in the rafters (almost) we’ll have a birdseye view of the game. Both kids (YA) are extatic.
    Any recommendations for where to stay in Toronto and Montreal (in Dec/Jan)?
    Last time in Montreal kid#1 and I stayed in a small Auberge at the Plateau. However, for the four of us and during winter it’ll be more reasonable to search for a small flat or B&B.
    Not so good: This holiday will be horribly expensive.
    We better live VERY reasonable from now and save up as much as we can (or I try to get a second job).

  10. I’m sitting on the verandah of a small ranch in southern Spain. Just listening to your voices on the blog is intensely soothing.

    This is our third full day. I begged to be allowed to just stay in the “finca” for the day. I’ve made a mac & cheese casserole, an eggplant and zucchini casserole, and transformed the leftover chicken into chicken salad. Instead of chastising myself for needing to settle “mom work” before rushing around to sites, I prefer to prepare things ahead of time, sit by myself with the view of olive groves, mowed golden hay fields, and tall, ruggedly worn mountains.

    My son and daughter-in-law, as well as my husband, are out touring with my lovely 2-year-old granddaughter. My daughter and I are comfortable here. (My daughter uses a wheelchair. She has made a list of fun activities ((an aquarium, a nature center, and more)) that are accessible. On future days we can all go explore.

    Debbie, I’m so glad you’re traveling, that your new hip is working, and that the young woman you have been saving from her mother is so much safer than she was only a short time ago.

    Yuri, I love the teamwork you’ve accomplished with your friend.

    Jan, the medical system is driving me nuts, but I can’t match your terrible experience. May the procedure proceed as scheduled!

    Susan, I’m not surprised that you’re still reaping the benefits of your garden. You’re such as expert. On the conversations about books, I lasted one meeting with a book club talking about Irving’s The World According to Garp. I hated the book and everyone else thought it was wonderful. It was a great experience for me because I’d thought prior to that that I was silly to avoid book clubs. Then, I recognized that they aren’t my cup of tea.

    chacha1, I hope you self-release the story. Now it’s even more your own.

    Deborah, I checked several GBTs looking for something to read on the plane and here in a remote place on vacation. There was a comment about Sofie Kelly’s Curiosity Thrilled the Cat, along with a reminder of your great cats. I read Kelly’s book on the plane and it was fun, but nowhere near as good as yours.

    Jenny, once again, thank you for Argh.

    1. Surely there are book clubs and book clubs. A lot must depend on members, the facilitator (if any) and what kinds of books they read. I can’t offhand remember a club meeting where I was the only one that hated a book, but I recall one or two where I was the only one that liked it, but that was not true at the next meeting.

    2. I just read the Wikipedia on The World According to Garp and it sounds like a book that I too would hate, if indeed I could force myself to finish it.

    4. Thanks. Elizabeth. Yestserday I received a bill from my PCP in Kansas dated August 1, and I have lived in Phoenix since April 20th!! I wonder if this is how AI is going to kill all of us- with frustration?

  11. I haven’t been here much for a while. No energy. (Skip this if medical stuff bores you). When I complained about it to my cardiologist on the 6 month routine visit in mid July, he said I needed to build my stamina and things were so good, he didn’t need to see me for a year. Fast forward to mid August. The clinic calls, the electro cardiologist reviewed my pacemaker downloads and I have been in persistent A fib since May. Would I like to come in and talk with him what can be done for me and Oh they can fit me in for an appointment in two weeks (it’s usually 3 to 6 months to see anyone). So I have a new prescription to regularize my heart beat then an ablation. I am hopeful of feeling like moving again but persistent A fib doesn’t always respond to the first ablation but several people I know who have had it done say this guy is really good. I am feeling better just knowing it isn’t just getting older. And really, with almost every one who has had it done have had the problem corrected.

    I feel like it is the surgery of the moment.

    For those of you who have been considering it. My SiL started taking Mounjaro in January because after years of trying to keep her glucose levels down she landed in the diabetes range. Her glucose levels are now firmly in the normal range; her blood pressure for the first time ever are in the normal range ( she was taking two or three medications and now only takes one) and she lost 15 pounds, which isn’t a lot but she is way healthier. Once I get through my current health situation, I am going to ask my doctor about it

    1. Jessie, I was tired all the time, too, and found an article stating that Metoprolol Tartrate can make you feel tired. That’s what I was taking until a new E.P. prescribed Metoprolol Succinate ER. I started feeling better. Best of luck with the ablation.

      1. Thank you. I don’t take either of those but some of my best medical information has come from non medical people and google.

  12. Also, on Friday’s post Jenny was talking about some books she was working on in the past. I remember snippets for two I was hoping she would finish: one had a MC who was a cat burgler maybe and there were fishes swimming through the air. This may be totally wrong but I had such a clear mental image. I felt happy thinking about them.

    Also under good news my last remodeling project is done and I paid off the contractor. There are still things needed doing but this major one is done.

  13. Peppers are good and make me happy. The Lunchbox peppers have finally fully ripened and are at peak, and I have So. Many. Peppers. https://www.instagram.com/p/DdHUkFPI45v/ I’ve been snacking on them around the clock. Well, not the poblanos, but those will go in chili soon.

    If you scroll down from the linked picture, I also pieced a simple quiltlet (cat-sized quilt) with some scraps from another recent project. It felt great to do something that only took a couple hours to complete (at least this phase of the work—it still needs quilting and binding), when so many of my other projects take forever to complete, like the peppers, and the bed-sized quilts, and books (especially the current one that just hit 100K words, while my typical word count is in the 65-70K range).

  14. GOOD news! It was 85ª and 58% humidity, but I took a walk with Kali, anyway. She loved it, and I tolerated it well. Now, I know I can get out there in less than optimal conditions. The new stationary bike works, but it’s boring, even though I can look over at the bird feeder while I use it. I got to see the sunrise, too.

  15. I got into the Medicare Bridge program that makes my Zepbound a 50$ copay all the way through December 2027. With some luck & work I will lose all weight necessary & arrive at 70 years fit enough to avoid death by the complications of obesity.
    (Please don’t put negative comments about ZB here. I have made an informed decision & I’m content with it.)
    I hit 15 years of working for my employer & was rewarded with a 100$ gift. I ordered a new pair of Birkenstocks.
    And my refrigerator went out & before the day was over a stranger gave me a free one!
    Awesome week really.

  16. My good this week took the form of “well, it could’ve been worse.” I got taken down by a yard waste bin and cut my lip and have a bunch of bruises, but I didn’t break anything and things are healing. I was moving it and stepped on the lid which forced it down and I went with it.

    The next day, my dad fell down a flight of stairs to the basement’s concrete floor. He fractured C6 vertebrae and two ribs. He’s 88 years old. He’s currently in the hospital, but not in pain and he didn’t die. They are intending to move him to rehab on Monday.

    Mom is recovering well from her heart valve replacement surgery which happened two weeks ago. She came home one day from visiting Dad at the hospital and found that the gas burner on her stove was still on. The house hadn’t burn down.

    Other than that, the weather has been nice and my raspberry bushes are starting to produce harvestable fruit.

    1. One legit fun thing from the week to note especially for the other quilters, yesterday I did a mystery 5-0 mini mystery called Pot o’Luck. It was put on by the TX2 quilt shop on the West Coast. There were four clues and the big reveal, so five steps total. You end up with a 19“ x 35“ runner or wall hanging. It was free and well done. There were instructional videos for every step that were super easy to follow even if you are a complete beginner, and there was another set of videos that had a storyline to follow along. If you get a chance to try one, I’d recommend it. I did it with a friend which made it more fun.

    2. Holy cow! That’s a lot.

      I sometimes get annoyed by my stove’s safety features (it turns off if a pot boils over and the sensor section gets wet, and it beeps a lot in other not-very-dangerous circumstances), but I absolutely love that it turns off when the most recently used burner is turned off and there’s no longer a pan on it.

    3. In the book version of Around the World in 80 days, Passepartout can’t remember if he left the gaslight in his room burning. Interestingly, nobody is worried about the fire hazard, nor about the explosion hazard if the flame went out (in the designs of those days I think the gas would have kept flowing), but only about the cost of the gas, which Fogg says will come out of Passepartout’s wages. When they get back, the house is still standing but Verne never follows up about the gaslight. Similar worries of course still plague us. I once asked a van to the airport to turn around after it had gone a block or two since I couldn’t remember if I’d locked the door. (I had!)

  18. I had a fairly good week but was exhausted at the end of it (and had not been not feeling fully rested from at least Thursday on). I’m now wondering if I in fact had had some low-symptom illness earlier in the week that wiped me out. I slept over 11 hours last night and feel better today, but still not very energetic, so I’m not supplying details on the good parts.

  19. Another GOOD: I’m rereading Rocky Start and I searched for a recipe for Nusskuchen and found one for Schoko-Nusskuchen. I’m going to make it. Trader Joe’s has bags of hazelnuts and I have a coffee grinder to make them into flour. Can’t wait!!!

  20. I had an overnight trip to my friend’s wood, staying in her cabin. Felt refreshed from the change of scene. Otherwise, I’ve been getting on with sorting my photography backlog. Finished all the landscapes and filleted my Christmas images before editing the additions taken in the past five years (I’ve obsessively shot close-ups of my Christmas tree, some of them movement abstracts, for the past twenty or thirty years; there were far too many also-rans).

  21. I saw the new doc about The Pretenders at the Toronto International Film Festival today. Chrissie Hynde showed up for the Q&A – still as punk, rebellious and blunt as ever. A staunch vegetarian, she referenced her joke in the ’80’s about firebombing McDonald’s and said she’d still be okay as long as there were no people inside if they were firebombed. Also I never realized how many puffy white shirts she rocked back in the day – I want to acquire every single one of them.

    1. I can’t quickly find anything later for Gary J than July 26, which is long enough ago to inspire worry. No recent activity on his Home Moanership blog either, but he did not post there frequently.

  23. Nothing bad happened. Yay!

    I’m finally getting to bed at a reasonable hour most nights.

    One more yard project-hedge trimming-and then it’ll just be mowing the lawn and raking the leaves.

  24. Friday night and Saturday I sat next to my sister during Rosh Hashannah services for the first time in 40 years. She has been singing in the choir and so had to be at services an hour early and never got to sit with her family. It felt so relaxed to wander in together and have time afterwards to greet friends and wish them a good year. Kitty’s youngest daughter was in town for the holiday and it was a real joy to see her reunite with her friends from school who had beautiful children of their own who are now the age they were when I first met them. I didn’t remember all their names, but seeing these shining faces as women in their 40’s was a real treat.

  25. I watched Beetlejuice at an outdoor venue this weekend, had massage & chiropractor appointments to start off the weekend, and spent the afternoon in the main city park listening to the orchestra and other performers. It was excellent weather for it!
    I often comment first thing in the a.m. with the intention to read everyone’s posts later in the day, which almost never happens. Today I made sure it did!

  26. After a comment here last week or the one before, I pulled out a crochet kit I had lying around. I figured that if I get it done before December, I could have something to give my great niece after all her medical trauma. The thing starts with “make 143 of these bits”. Luckily, they aren’t hard – but 143 is a daunting number. After putting some time into it this weekend (and ignoring all of the quilting I could have done), I think I have 48 of those motifs – so about 1/3 done. So, as long as my hands don’t cramp up, I’ll be good!

  27. Last week I went on a field trip with several other Master Gardeners from my region. We went to Sycamore Hills Gardens, a privately owned place on the other side of Syracuse, NY. (Deb, I don’t think it’s far from you, if you want to visit it). You have to call for reservations to visit it and since parking is an issue, they charge by the vehicle instead of the person. It’s absolutely beautiful there. There are three ponds, a formal garden, a vegetable garden, a maze, all kinds of statuary and gongs, as well as countless other garden areas to explore. A couple of us went into the maze, but after a short time, we found the escape door that visitors, who haven’t yet found the center and want out, and escaped. Not because we didn’t want to get to the center, but because our fellow MG’s were hungry and wanted to go to lunch…as in now! lol

  28. I finished 26 credits of education. I can renew RN license. I actually probably had them through work but now if I get audited I can easily send them the credits.

  29. I really wanted to watch the documentary Love Between The Covers this weekend because I recently saw it mentioned somewhere (here probably?). BUT I forgot the actual title apparently, and ended up searching YouTube for Between The Covers as well as Between The Sheets, and it was a horror for a minute there. By the time I googled the correct title and found it I was traumatized. I’m looking forward to watching it still, once I’ve recovered. When we read author’s books we hear their “voice”, but it’s fun to hear their real voices too 🙂

About the Author

Jennifer Crusie is the New York Times, USA Today, and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling author and co-author of twenty-three novels, one book of literary criticism, miscellaneous articles, essays, novellas, and short stories, and the editor of three essay anthologies. She lives in a cottage in Pennsylvania, where she often stares at the ceiling and counts her blessings.

Find out more about Jenny’s published works by visiting JennyCrusie.com

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