Sunday, April 19, 2026

April 19, 2026 Sunday

Greetings!
Lots of random pictures this week...many of pen cleaning--LOL!  Obviously more for my delight.  ;) 

Played phone tag with the eye center.  Dr. Anderson finally called me himself on Wednesday.  He agreed that if the oral steroids are working to reduce inflammation in the rest of my body it is probably helping with the eye.  But while I am on them--can't leave the apartment to get into the clinic.  Could use more time on them and he didn't want me to stop, either.  The plan is/was for me to stay on them, made an appointment for Monday the 27th, and I am to start taking some kind of medication to slow down my digestive system for five days before the appointment so I can hopefully make it in so he can look inside my eye.  Talk about being between a rock and a hard brown place--LOL!

But then Leah has a meeting to run at work on that Monday so now I am playing phone tag again to try to change the appointment.  Anderson is out of town the week before that Monday.  And he's booked up and trying to fit me in somewhere.  We'll get it figured out this week, I'm sure.  Eye is the same.  Can't see out of it.  Has a bit more light sensitivity.  No clue if that is good or bad.  But my hand, sinuses, toes, and general stiffness all over has been improving!  Whoohoo!  

So funny...the boys were at Plains Art Museum one night during the week for a felting class and Ian found his misplaced Christmas pottery!  Had been sitting around over there all these months.

They went to a class where they did felting.  ??  Using wool, water, and glue?  Never heard of this before.  (Well, Ian went--Liam didn't bring anything down to show me, but he was probably there, too.)  Ian made a mountain scene.
)
These are out of order but I don't feel like fighting with Blogger right now--lol!

Ian had two more little bowls to add to the collection he wants to display in my studio one day.

He made a good sized bag or pouch in that felting class!

The bag is pretty impressive!
Me.  Worked my baby steps to finish cleaning and filling the fountain pens.  Allie didn't pay attention at first.  Too busy.
What?
Watching CatTV--lol!
Took me till Thursday to finish them all.

Just kept plugging away at it.

Me standing at the sink flushing pens...boring to Miss Allie.
Two trays down.
One evening I couldn't find Allie.  
I had tossed the big memory foam cushion and her blue blanket into the studio along with so much other stuff...and she finally noticed it, I guess.  She has slept on it several nights.
Windy days blow leaves around in the window well.  Was 80 degrees on Thursday and we had snow flurries on Friday.  
Filling pens at the table...now that got Allie up to watch almost every time--lol!
Had to ask Dagan to open the four new little bottles as I have very little grip still.
Filling in the little binder to I know which ink is in which pen.

I did interesting things like miscalculate returning ink to a sample vial and squirting ink all over the table three times with my bad depth perception.  I got ink all over my fingers and hands more than I ever have. 
Allie seemed delighted with my frustration, exciting expletives, and sudden agitations.  
Normally this human is pretty dull to watch--lol!
Finally!  All three trays cleaned, filled...
... and the little ink color binder filled in fresh and clean.
Was a bit more challenging than usual, but still genuinely fun for me.  I am one happy camper!!

Life feels so much more normal!!  I am all caught up with writing letters again.  I can type--even if I am constantly hitting the wrong keys and my spell check quit on Blogger for some reason.

Dagan and Leah are supposed to come down and attach the tall furniture to the walls this afternoon.  I didn't have any appointments to go to all week.  (Or couldn't make them, I should say--lol!)  The diarrhea seems to be worth all the trouble and grief.  It was even easier to bend over to put socks on the past few days--whoohoo!  Little things like that...man!  You realize how bad things have really been.  I am very good at body-detachment after all these years.  You learn to ignore pain and limitations to survive and enjoy what you can do, you know?  

So, despite the one eye and no-warning-diarrhea...life has quite improved the past couple weeks on the steroids.  And the plan is to just leave me alone with steroids and diarrhea for a while, too.  I'll take it!  Delighting in being to write and type more...in using my fountain pens.  Maybe this week I can get back to making a few blog comments.  If Blogger doesn't mess with me there like I have heard several people complaining they are unable to comment on blogs all of a sudden.  Good grief.  Well, it will be nice not to have to struggle so much to get my socks on, anyways.  The little things.  Till next week...