July 21, 2025 Monday--5am

Good morning!

What a week!  But first I have to tell you the most important news!  We have a moving date!!  August 21st, a Thursday, at noon with Moving Team Six.  I can hardly believe it!  After three years there's finally a moving date--whoohoo!!  Couldn't go for earlier in August because Dagan has his annual heart/pacemaker checkup down in Minneapolis earlier in August.  That's fine with me.  We have a moving date.  I can give my two-month notice the end of this month.  And I will be moved in a month!  It still hasn't sunk in that it's really real--lol!

Keanna came on Monday.  She was surprised at how much I had gotten done.  She helped me pull out all the extra wooden shelves we had in the bookcases in the studio.

After she left I changed the shower curtain and thought about her news.

Keanna got another job.  She'll only be here maybe two more times and she won't ever see the new place.  More changes.  

I don't think I will get another cleaning girl.  It has been more and more difficult for the county to find cleaners.  Once I move if Dagan (who is the one in charge of cleaning bathrooms at their house) can clean mine once a month I will be okay.  Keanna's company didn't let her do a lot of things that Caroline's did all those years.  She wasn't allowed to clean the patio door, climb up more than two steps on a stool to reach things I couldn't, hand scrub a floor occasionally to get around the edges...and there were a few more things I can't remember now.  Oh, and my allotted time went from 3 hours every two weeks to an hour and fifteen minutes with Keanna's company.   

Anyways, ever since covid it has been an issue.  So many people quit.  You might even remember Caroline's boss herself came and cleaned for me once a month during covid for a while because Caroline had gotten another job and they'd been struggling to get somebody to clean for me. That's when they switched companies, I think, to Keanna's.  The county hasn't contacted me yet, but when they do I think I might just tell them I won't need one after the move.  

Also on Monday morning before Keanna came...there was no hot water.  Turned out we didn't have hot water all week!  There was no way I was going to the clinic to get my labwork done without a shower!  Kept thinking every day we'd have hot water back.  The office posted notices outside our doors...twice.  I got emails from the management company...twice.  Got more stressful as the week went on because I have to have the bloodwork done or I can't get my CT Scans on Monday.  They need to know you are okay to get the dye they use or they won't do it.  

On top of that--I went into a fibro IBS flare and I wasn't sleeping well or long--lol!  Was not the week to get much packing done--lol!  But, at least it wasn't because of all the packing I did.  It wasn't due to body pain, anyways.  Exhaustion...yes.  But the LubriSyn doesn't help with CF--lol!  It only lubricates the joints.

Speaking of--the LubriSyn story...

I have been following Cog Hill Farm on YouTube for years.  Jason, Brooke and their daughter, MaryCarl (who is now a teenager and doesn't want to be on videos anymore), moved 4-5 years ago to a basically empty big plot of land from their old smaller farm.  They don't eat any of the animals they own--except for the eggs the chickens lay.  Grow a lot of their own fruit and veggies.  All their animals are pets.  They talk to them.  (Like I've always talked to mine--lol!).  They love animals and end up taking in animals that need help, are abandoned, or need rescuing fairly often...but they don't do it because they are a rescue place or a petting zoo or anything like that.  Just because they love animals.

Brooke got mysteriously sick a couple years ago--aching all over, exhausted--and went from doctor to doctor to try to find a diagnosis.  (Sounded all too familiar to me.)  Several months ago they got asked about possibly taking this calf...had four owners, was told it should be put down, but nobody ever had the heart because she's such a sweet thing.  Matilda got stepped on probably by her mother or another cow when she was really little--right on a front knee.  Had to hop about on three legs and dragged that leg with its foot turned under rubbing along the ground.  They took her.  Got their vet to look at her.  Checked with an Alabama university, I think it was...livestock experts somewhere.  Nothing much they could do for her.  As she continued to grow and gain weight...didn't look good for her to be dragging that leg around.  Their vet recommended some exercises--pushing against her side ten times in a row a few times a day to try to make her put weight on that leg.  Not a lot of change but a little bit.  Then he recommended giving her LubriSyn on her food.  It didn't take very long--maybe a month or so--and she could stand on that leg and walk on it.  She'll always have a little bit of a limp and a really large hard knee--but she can run even!

Meanwhile, when Brooke discovered that they also make LubriSyn for people--she started taking it to lubricate her joints.  She was able to be back in the videos more and feeling better also in a couple of months.  Hasn't cured her.  She can still have flares...but she feels a lot better with less aches and pains.  Can do the farm chores again almost every day.  Looks better again.  Smiling and laughing more again.  And other people were commenting and emailing her telling her their stories about using LubriSyn and how it helped them.

Well, I kept thinking about it.  Not cheap.  But if I got it through their code (CogHill) you can get 25% off.  Still--with shipping it's about $38 for a month size bottle.  I figured I'd try it once and if I didn't notice anything--well, it had been worth a try.

Honestly, I wasn't sure it was doing much.  I maybe felt a little less achy, but nothing really noticeable.  Truth--it was when I started packing that I went--woah!!  I've had fibro for over 20 years and I have been much worse ever since Keytruda, as you guys know.  Fibro is in the muscles.  Arthritis is in the bones, of course.  I have arthritis in my lower back--degenerative spine--and I have it all over from jaw to toes.  Especially back, hips, and knees.  But the muscle aches and weakness have always been the prevailing consideration.  No doctors have ever talked to me about my arthritis, to be honest.  So, I thought--how much would lubricating my joints actually help my situation, right?  

I just went through a year and a half of purging and packing here, as most of you know.  And I have not done anything since--for a year and a half.  So--by rights--I fully expected to be even slower, able to do less, and in more pain packing now.  Absolutely!  When I was purging and packing before I was lucky if I could do baby steps (10-15 minutes sessions) 3-5 times a day...and then was in such pain I was unable to function for a day or two.  Then I'd have another day where I would do as many sessions as I could handle (sometimes only 1 or 2)--and repeat.  There was no way in hell I could have packed all I did now in those two weeks!  No way!  And instead of one day on and 1-2 days off--I averaged 2-3 days on and 1 day off!!  And sometimes was packing for 20-30 minutes five times a day!  Unbelievable.

I still went through the last week dealing with CF and IBS--but I wasn't out of commission due to pain from the packing!!!  

I do have a lot of health issues--but this stuff is helping one of them.  More than I ever thought!  I ordered another bottle--lol!

So there's how I heard about LubriSyn.  And I will let you know how it goes, but so far--for me--it is worth giving it a shot for a few months, anyways.  Not some miracle cure, but it helps me.

Anyways, I split up the wooden shelves we added to the bookcases and stuck them down at the bottom of each bookcase.

LubriSyn doesn't give me back the strength in my hands--lol!  I had three of those pegs that hold the shelves that I couldn't get out in that front bookcase.  

Got all the shelves out.  We wanted to reorganize them so each one had original shelves in it in order to try to sell them.  People can take the extra shelves if they want them.  Could be painted or stained.  We just never got around to it.

Allie has been quite stressed with me moving things all around in her home.  "What are you doing now" look.

When I'm resting between my longer baby step sessions...I do a lot of cloud watching.

Allie does some...

...but she was on alert with all the noises in the hallway.  The maintenance room is kitty-corner across the hall from us and they were working on the hot water heater off and on all week.

Oh, in case you wanted to see how my skin graft is healing...not too bad.

My lip is sticking out a bit and the skin is weird, but I am getting back some feeling little by little.  I told Leah my smile will probably always be crooked from now on.  It's always been crooked, she said--LOL!

We've had some rain--been told we'd have rain and never did--had light rain when it wasn't predicted...but it's generally been cooler!!!   Thank goodness!  Been able to have the patio door open quite a bit.

I was thinking one day...I don't know if I have taken pictures of a bird sitting right smack dab on the peak of the garage across from us.  They like to sit right at the very peak for some reason.  Best view to watch for the hawk?

Well, meanwhile...we had no hot water and I HAD to make it to the lab on Friday.  Last day I could go!  The idea of packing up a bunch of stuff so I could go over to use my new shower...and they haven't put up the shower rod yet...I told them I would wash my hair in cold water at least.  Had been taking GI showers all week.  Leah said she'd come over with some dry shampoo she likes and put it in my hair for me so it wouldn't be all greasy, anyways.  That sounded better than trying to wash my hair in ice cold water.

So she came by Thursday night, cut my dirty hair for me, then sprayed white powder in my hair.  Now I know what I might look like when my hair turns gray--lol!  She also put together all the U-Haul boxes except the two biggest ones and added the rest of the ink to my printer.  (I tried to pay attention so I would know how to do it next time--new printer.)  She pulled out the three doohickies from the bookcase for me, too.  And she took home half the pictures we took down off the walls.  What she could easily carry.  (They have to take something with them every time they come over from now on--new rule I made--lol!)

Went Friday to the clinic with Dagan and the boys.  Dagan needed to go to the lab, too.  Finger prick.  Because he's on blood thinners.  Dagan was in and out right away in two minutes.  I was next.  But I wasn't so lucky.  This is the second time they have messed up my lab order.  The story--can't get bloodwork more than seven days before the order is dated and they put down July 31st!!  Wrong date.  Should have been a week before my CT Scans on Monday.  Anyways, I had to call his office myself because of it being between clinics they couldn't call?  (He's at the Roger Maris Cancer Center.)  I waited on hold a long time, but finally it was taken care of and I could get my labs done.  Whew!  I think we were there over an hour!

I had Dagan pop in and take the box of painting brushes with him.  ;)

Right before I left for the clinic--there was hot water!!  Really hot!  Whoohoo!  

But by the time I got home...it was warm to tepid to warm...the seniors in this building were all using the hot water at once--lol!  So I figured I'd wait till morning.

Meanwhile, I got all the shelves arranged back in the four bookcases and got pictures for Leah.  

Showed the extra shelves they could have, too.

Leah is on Facebook and is the one who sells stuff on Facebook Marketplace.  So those can be posted now.  She's been reposting some things that didn't sell that are in my garage, Dagan told me.  Good!

I went to take the art table apart...

...but found these.  Leah says I need a crescent wrench.  She'll bring hers over to get it apart.  Not sure when, of course.

Since I know when I am moving now...something I had put off was dealing with my address labels.  Since I have 12-14 people I write to regularly (or try to--lol!), I order a bunch of return address labels when they go on sale.  I decided rather than throw these away I could remove the address from them and use them as stickers or envelope seals.  Some I could cut square...

...but a lot of them are round.  I cut them into strips...

...and use this circle punch to cut the design out of the center.

Great idea.  But I got this far and my hand was hurting and all red from the punch.  So it is something I will have to do a little at a time.  But it will definitely be worth it!  :)

I came across some real deals on some blank cards on Amazon.  Since I haven't been able to make much more than Birthday and Christmas cards these past few years and am very low on handmade cards...

...and these are just what I like for flowers--more realistic and delicate...I bought up a bunch.  They were $5.99-$6.99 for 20-30 cards!!  Amazingly cheap! 

So, my dear pen pals, you may be seeing some pretty floral cards in your mail boxes--LOL!  ;)

It's always exciting to get super deals, isn't it!?  And being realistic, it may be quite a while before I am all unpacked, settled in, organized, and able to be making cards again.  Doesn't honestly take much to tempt me with store-boughten cards, though.  I have loved stationery long before I made cards...and have boughten cards all these decades since I started making them, too--lol!  Been a letter writer since I was nine and had my first pen pal from Italy!  Anyways, makes me very happy to have something pretty to share.

Meanwhile--Saturday morning--the water was still warm to tepid to warm.  Took till noon until all these seniors gave the hot water a break--lol!  I jumped into a nice long luxurious shower and then washed a couple loads of laundry and ran the dishwasher.  You really know how much you appreciate a water heater when it is gone.  ;)

I moved the art table out of the way... 

...and I had to move a larger box off the table in the bedroom so I could use the table to sort and fold clothes and towels.  I moved it wrong.  Or so my back told me in no uncertain terms.  

This was the culprit.

So I took the rest of Saturday and all of Sunday off from any packing.  The CT Scans on Monday usually annoy the hell out of my back in the first place--lying flat like that on that hard surface for so long (I have two scans and have to also wait between them and not move for seven minutes).  They have to help me sit up at the end.  But once all that is over and done with...I am hoping maybe to be back to packing on Tuesday (instead of what would have been my usual Weds or Thurs or even Fri--lol!).  Fingers crossed.  These are the tests for the LubriSyn--lol!  I am still tired and have pain.  But the pain level has been lower and I have been recovering faster.  So we'll see how it goes.  But it gives me hope and lights that flame of optimism within me.  :)

Congrats if you made it this far!  Was a lot that went on this last week.  I am losing my cleaning girl--but I finally have a moving date, have hot water again, and the LubriSyn really seems to be helping with the arthritis, at least.  Life is good!  Till next week, my friends!!  :) :)