June 20, 2022 Monday--11am

Good morning!

It's already 91 degrees.  Was 101 yesterday and supposed to be close to 100 today.  Sounds like a lot of the country is under a heat wave.  Whew!  I am so thankful to be in an apartment on the ground floor with an AC that works.  The last two top floor apartments I lived in since I moved up here in 1999 I was lucky if it was 10 degrees cooler inside...and I wasn't even facing west!

On with the week.

Monday 

I was so tired I had an over 2 hour nap after I finished blogging.

Tuesday

As suggested, I went out to pluck off the blossoms on those back coleus...only to discover that very likely some rabbit had hopped up there and eaten one off.  Looked like it had stood right on the coleus--LOL!  (in fact a whole section did get broken off and died by the next day.)

They didn't eat the one on the other side so I plucked that purple blossom off.  I know the bees love them but , apparently, so do rabbits--LOL!

Katie came Tuesday afternoon to clean.  Always nice to see her...and have clean floors and bathroom.  ;)

Wednesday

Did laundry.  Sprayed for bugs around my patio door after I watered--non toxic spray.  Been eating up the pot of soup I made (used stew meat).

Thursday

Loving the clean patio doors--thanks to Katie!

Was just cool enough to have the patio door open most of the day.  Annie was so happy.  Only shut partway because of the wind blowing things around in the apartment.

Love seeing the occasional red-winged blackbird visiting.  Everybody loves mealworms.  A pair of grackles load their beaks as full as they can get them and fly off--to feed babies, I assume.

I finally got going again on the second huge batch of bookcards on Thursday.  I had a stack of the watercolory paper to fold into signatures.  Got that done.  The next thing was to start on covers.  Mostly the handmade paper I bought years ago and the new ink drop (gorgeous) paper.

I spent the day listening to Cog Hill Farm video podcasts...

...while I cut, folded, and paired up covers.

I had a whole bunch of odd sized signatures that I made handmade paper covers for (right side of trays)

...and then I took signature stacks from the left side (the watercolory paper) and made ink drop covers for those.  The trays are divided into 2, 3, and 4-page bookcards.

By the time I had covers for all the pre-made signatures, I still had this much left.  Third big batch?  Eventually--yes!

I had one more tray with a few bigger bookcards with more than 4 pages.  They all got stacked up and are ready for the next step--hole punching.

How long it will take me to work up to that--not sure.  But I made it this far--tada!

Also on Thursday my Dick Blick order arrived...three small sets of watercolor markers.  My other markers are so old that I don't know if they would last coloring 90+ card fronts anymore.  I wanted to try out some other markers...so I dug out the Christmas cards Leah and I had started last year...I think...or the year before that?

We have the black card bases cut and folded--had cut the inside and outside pieces of white cardstock--stamped in black and embossed the front pieces (Christmas lights)--and picked out a sentiment for the inside to stamp on.  I need to color all the fronts that are full of old fashioned Christmas light bulbs.

Made a color chart and then did a sample coloring with each of the four sets of markers.  Trouble is--I like this color from this set and that color better from that set--LOL!  Some are streakier covering a larger area, too.  So, I brought the samples with on Friday so Leah and I could choose which markers to use.  

Friday

Clinic day with Leah.  I think it was up close to 90 degrees that day.  I closed up the apartment before I left and it has been closed up ever since due to the heat wave.

Anyways, lots of good news.  My ANC was up to 1.9!!  Whoohoo!  (1.5 is low normal and I haven't seen that for months.)  Had the lady doctor that day--and she said they decided that I only need to see a doctor every other time now as long as I am doing so well.  So next visit in three weeks I don't have to see a doctor--just get the bloodwork done, wait for results, and get the infusion if bloodwork is okay.

Leah and I figured it was because I have been on Keytruda for six months and not had any bad reactions to it.  Just the being extra tired which they've said is common.

I did tell the doctor about the eye light arc and she said I should see my eye doctor.  I planned to call Monday/today.  

The kinda bad news is that I asked about when I was due for my next scan--thinking 3 months again so like in July or August.  Not for six months!  So not till November.  Of course, I would rather know where I stand sooner.  (They can stop shrinking, I read.)  But that is what they plan.  All the rest was good news, though.  Well, my port has been touchier and needing more flushes...but I didn't need medication in it and waiting for half and hour for it to work, at least.  They got it going.  So was a good day!!

And--yes--Leah and I went through the marker samples and decided on which colors were the best.  I am going to make up a sample using 4 colors and another using 5 colors and then we can decide.  We are not sure if orange seems like a Christmas color or not--LOL!  Neither of us care for purple in Christmas lights.  So, when I have some energy again I will be coloring.

Typical--I fell asleep for a couple of hours not long after Leah dropped me off.  

That night--I don't know what I did by accident but my phone went berserk on me.  Somehow I turned on some kind of voice assistant or something and I couldn't turn it off.  Nothing worked.  I started hitting everything I could after while.  I couldn't turn it off, switch pages, get anything to actually work.  Finally in random poking at it some boxes came up to shut it down or restart, etc.  I hit shut it down and it was the first thing that actually worked.  Left it alone for an hour.  Started it up and it was just the same!!!!  Arggg!

I was trying to email Dagan and Leah...I think it was a gaming night for them.  When they did come across my string of emails they told me to leave it be till one of them could come and look at it.  Since alarms went off that I couldn't shut off it has been under some blankets in the bedroom so I can't hear it.  They haven't come yet or emailed.  

I've been super tired all weekend, though, of course (infusion)...but no phone means no back up when I leave the apartment.  I always take the phone with me just in case anything happens, you know?  So when I go out to water (which I've had to do every day in this heatwave) I realized how much security that phone is...even if I have never had to use it--thank goodness.  I am really super careful going across those big uneven rocks to get to the faucet.  When you don't have something then you realize how much you used it.  No pictures.  I did get a video before my phone went nuts.  I am so grateful Leah has my phone set up to automatically move my pics and videos to One Drive or I would have not been able to get to my pictures for the blog.  I'm used to checking the weather every morning...and playing different games sometimes.  I use that phone more than I think.  And even if Dagan and Leah prefer texts and aren't always quick to get ahold of--if I needed to I could call them.  I do miss my cell phone.  :(

Saturday

Before the phone went crazy I did take a short video of how windy it was here.  You've heard me talk about how it is always windy to some degree and the air is never still here...but I thought I'd try to catch some gusty wind for you.

NOTE: Much to my surprise the shortcut to posting a YouTube video actually worked this time!  At least it looks like it did.  I haven't been taking videos because I didn't know how to get them on my blog anymore.  At least for a while there nothing I tried worked--including their new shortcut.  But now it actually worked!  I hope.  Let me know if it didn't.

Anyways, had another couple hour nap on Saturday and slept 10 hours Saturday night.

Sunday

Still heat and wind advisories.  Was 101--heat index of 107 or "feels like" 107.  When I was watering plants at 7:30pm it was still 100 degrees.  At midnight it was still 87.  Whew!

And I had another eye thing but without the headache.  Flashing arc of pixelated light for about 20 minutes or so.  I did email Leah (who will have to drive me) to ask her to make the appointment with my eye doctor--I have no phone for one thing and she knows her calendar better than I do, anyways.  This was the third time with the eye lights and it is getting worrisome.  I haven't heard anything yet but they don't text or call before noon with my crazy inverted hours lately.  Leah knows I prefer afternoon appointments.  I hope to hear soon.

So that's what's happening over here.  It's 93 right now and supposed to get up to 98 again.  I know a lot of areas in the US are very hot.  

****

AHA!  There was a tap-tap-tap on my patio door!  Leah and the boys were here.  Really hot for them to sit outside on my lawn chair even if most of it was in the shade.  Liam didn't even want to.  Leah fixed my phone--I had it on speech assistant or something like that and her grandpa uses that.  I had accidentally pressed both the buttons on the side at the same time, she said.

Leah even got my tablet working, too, and my Kindle hooked up on WiFi.  She is going to call my eye doctor.  Ian just had tennis lessons and is on his way to a golf lesson.  94 degrees now and climbing.  The grass is turning brown.

Hurray, though!  I can end on a happy note.  Got my phone back!!

Stay cool, people!!  Or warm as the case may be.  Till next week...