October4, 2026 Sunday

Greetings!

You know that old saying that if you haven't got anything good to say....

I kind of dread even writing to tell you how this week went.

But...this is my life.  

Remember I said I had coughed a lot on Saturday for some reason?  Well, I was doing a little better on Sunday and actually got into the studio for a good while!  I haven't taken a single picture this past week.  I should go take a couple right now.  This is my chance...

Okay--my chance meaning I am not hacking away at the moment and am fairly mobile.  :)

It may not look like much.  I did plan on getting so much more done.  But here's what I did manage last Sunday.

All six boxes were emptied from under the table!

"She's up!" Allie noticed.  "Looks a little unsteady."

"I think I'll just settle in down here for a little while and keep an eye on her."

Anyways, apparently Dagan and I came down with the same thing...the cough/cold but this time with a temp.  He was sick all weekend, missed work on Monday, and he's been sick all week, too.  We've both been coughing up a storm  I was running a temp of 101 most of the week and by Thursday diarrhea was added to the mix--lol!  See why I didn't even want to tell you?  Every time I start to feel better...well, I have little or no immune system left to not catch stuff or to try to get well from what I have already caught.  I couldn't even get in to the walk-in clinic.,,which I was thinking about doing to have them check my lungs.  Not sure if they could give me anything, but my cough reminded me of when my little brother had the whooping cough when we were little.  

And THEN...  

All the hours of coughing...my jaw hurt.  But it was on the lower left side where I have no teeth left, so I thought I had been clenching or had bitten my cheek again and ignored it.  (Too sick to deal with it.)  I finally felt around in there with a finger a couple days ago.  No surprise that my jaw is swollen back there.  But--surprise!  On the inside of the swelling is something sharp?!  Piece of bone or tooth?  Piece of wire left behind?  No idea!  

Oh, and I also had a small chip come off of the top of a bottom front tooth a week or so ago.  Nothing big...could wait to deal with...but also new.  (Are my teeth now going to crumble away?)  

I can't remember how many days they said I had to be recovered from a respiratory illness in order to have surgery?  Week?  10 days?  *she says as she bark-coughs and Allie leaves her chair where she had just settled in because she gets annoyed at the jostling from the coughing*  Does it need to be the same if I am not put under and am still awake?  That was another option.  (I wanted to be out, but may not end up getting that option.)

This week I have to make an appointment with the dentist.  Will I need oral surgery, too, for whatever sharp thing is in my mouth?  Or will she be able to tell from an x-ray and take it out herself?  Those of you who have been around for a while know how I don't like going to the dentist.  No offense to the better dentists I have had in later years...just many really bad dental experiences in my lifetime.

Just keeps getting better and better, eh?

Such is my life lately.  

So, I don't have a fever anymore as of Friday.  I am still coughing, but not constantly.  My jaw hurts.  The diarrhea is subsiding...but I have eaten very little the past week due to the painful jaw so fingers crossed as far as going anywhere anytime soon.  I haven't eaten for 24 hours...am going to try again when I am done here and see what happens.  (Have been eating about once a day--haven't had the best of luck so far--lol!) I managed to wash a load of clothes, lay them out on the table, and hang them over a chair today.  Gave myself laurels and praises--LOL!  I will probably get them put away over the next couple days.  Not in very good shape, but hoping that will change.

Dagan is still sick.  There's the possibility he and I will maybe go to the walk-in clinic together this week.  Not how we thought this week would go.

Meanwhile...I am on season 4 out of 6 of Major Crimes and still finding it interesting enough to detract me from my body and all its complaints and issues or to keep me company when I am up coughing all night.  Thank goodness for a good escape-show!  :) :)  Does my heart so much good to see the bad guys caught and paying consequences.  Ahhh!  

Sorry to not have more positive news.  Just the way it goes sometimes.  Does wear you down, though.  Funny--it actually kind of cheered me up to chat with you all about it.  So, thanks! Many thanks for listening and still caring enough to have read this. Till next week, my friends.....

September 27, 2026 Sunday

Greetings and happy fall!  Things have cooled off considerably and we've been getting some light rain off and on.  Feels like fall is here and we are more than ready!

McFamily was working on the yard this past week.  

The boys cleaned out Gramma's window wells of trash, weeds, and leaves.

Been many overcast days.  Perfect for yard work (and sleeping in late for Gramma--lol!).

The Chronic Fatigue side of my Fibro has been really in the forefront the past two weeks.  Anyone who knows this born night owl knows I don't normally fall asleep at like 8:30 at night.  But I have been going with the sleep flow.  I think I am making up for not getting decent sleep for so long.  Cough is still with me but not usually bad.  Still have the occasional coughing jags that last and last but, on the whole, much better than I was.

Ian asked me if I would like a painted acorn.  He asked me what expression I wanted...like smiling, frowning, etc.  I said how about a cheeky little half smile?

The eyes are small and almost covered by the acorn bangs--lol!  Pretty cute!

Got appointments made for pre-op physical and R-dr labwork both on October 12th.  Still fingers crossed I will pass for the surgery.  Had a sudden bad coughing day most of Saturday.  No clue why.  Comes and goes.  Been so draggy I barely even worked on letters this past week.  If I had a bed and was able to sleep in one I would probably have been in bed most of the week again--lol!  Sorry my snailmail pals.  I will try to do much better this week.  

 I am keeping busy catching up on shows and starting a couple new ones...plus YouTube channels I follow, of course.  This is besides blogs--lol!  (When one can barely move one can have lots of screen time on one's hands--LOL!)  I like having several series going, actually, from more serious to more humorous.  Then I can watch what I am in the mood for.  ;)  Right now it's Netflix--season 2 of 6 of Major Crimes, Acorn--season 19 of Murdoch Mysteries, BritBox--season 1 of 3 of Monarch of the Glen, Hulu--season 15 of Criminal Minds, and HBO--season 1 of Rooster (always enjoy Steve Carell).  I am grateful I can get totally lost in good shows so that it makes me forget pesky things like pain.  We really do live in the golden age of television!

Wild Card:

Having almost died several times, it was brought to mind early on.  First time I was somewhere between 9-11 years old.  Almost drown.  Rescued by Brack and given CPR.  We were visiting at their lake cabin.  Floating on an inner tube in the afternoon, fell asleep, slipped through the inner tube and got tangled in the weeds.  Remember going up to grab air ten times.  My legs wouldn't work.  The last time I went down I knew I wasn't coming up again...weeds all around me.  Last I remembered.  Brack (the dad) saved my life--which didn't flash before my eyes, BTW.  Every time I could have died I just thought--oh, okay...so this is how I die...interesting...not what I would have guessed.

I've never been afraid of dying.  So, I guess I have kind of always been at peace with my mortality.  I'm just greedy and don't want to leave--LOL!  I'd rather still be right here...even in pain all over watching Major Crimes--ROFL!  I always figure there is more to do coming up, you know?  Never afraid of going but also never really ready to leave this beautiful, magical, awful, terrifying place called earth.  ;)

Till next week, my friends!  :) :)

September 20. 2026 Sunday

Greetings!  

Got my Blogger Reader back Thursday night.  Friday I got an email from Blogger all about how they were going to cancel 14 specific videos from my 20 year old blog.  Included a long complicated instruction list of how to save them and repost them?  Did anyone else get such a crazy email from Blogger?  I was all happy to get my Reader list back and then (if it is not spam) was very sad to think Blogger is going to start to trim the years of postings!  :(

On Friday I had my virtual appointment with my R-Dr.  (I am tired of writing out rheumatologist--lol!)  After I have had my eye surgery she wants me to try a weekly shot.  As she listed the side effects...let's just say it sounded potentially awful.  She said there's an oral med but she thought I might have better luck with the shot.  Maybe my body won't overreact to a shot the way it has to the oral meds?  But I didn't want to make that decision right now when I am still trying to just get healthy enough to have eye surgery.  She said it could take a month or so to get insurance approval, but I want to think about it and let Dagan and Leah read all the information about the shot and the next level of oral medication.  R-Dr sent longer descriptions of each that we could all read.  

I have been dealing with side effects and being sick for so many months that I just can't deal with deciding to try something new right now.  I told her if I am finally feeling better and get this eye surgery behind me I may feel very differently.  But I did tell her I might not want to deal with anything new at all.  I'm exhausted.  She said that I had to be made aware that I could get the inflammation in my other eye and end up blind...and repeated that to me twice.  I do know that.  I've always known that this whole last year.  But then I've had it in the one eye since before Christmas last year and my good eye is still good.  I think the odds are fair that it won't move into that good eye.  But I do know that could change at any time.

I have had no luck with oral meds, so if I was going to try something I would be more likely to try her weekly shot.  Even if I do not like needles and have to look away when they poke and prod and jab me...I could learn how to jab myself, I'm sure.  She seemed to think I may have a better chance avoiding the bad reactions with the shot, too.  That was her first choice.  (I didn't want to tell her about my horrid reactions to the flu, shingles, and covid shots--lol!)

Anyways, since I hadn't even made it in to the lab for her bloodwork check, I suggested that I get labwork done beginning of October (in the first two weeks) as I need to go in for a pre-op physical before the surgery and I have to wait until I am feeling lots better so I can be okayed for surgery.  Then she can message me about the lab results and we can see what is really going on.  When we know whether my inflammation markers have gone sky-high or are the same or better, then we will have more information for a decision on the weekly shot.  So I have a while to think about it.

I've been sleeping a lot this past week because I am totally shot from six weeks of constant coughing (my ribs still hurt), rashes, sores, increased pain levels, etc.  It is soooo nice to be able to get up during the night and be able to get back to sleep--ahhhh!  The little things in life, eh?  I am on the mend!  Only two bad coughing jags in the past week!  I am now feeling more hopeful that I will be able to make it to the surgery.  (Knock on wood!)  This has been a really long year so far--lol!  

Honestly--the past five years have felt really long and hard.  So, I am just enjoying that I seem to finally be on the mend for longer than three days--lol!  I have been catching up on several British mystery series' new seasons...watching movies and documentaries...writing letters...finally writing blog comments again...the weather has cooled off into the 70s...Allie's new less tracking litter is actually less tracking...my mouth sores are gone...blogger reader is back...able to sleep again...wasn't limping as badly this weekend...hand has mostly been less painful...the boys were down in the window well catching crickets and chatting with Gramma...life is good!

Allie agrees!

Managed to put up a new shower curtain with leaves this time.  Maybe thinking fall...lol!

Anyways, another Wild Card...

Outside!  Down in the small patch of woods by the lake.  In the flower field or the sand dunes or the field of tall prairie grass.  Basically--out of the house whenever I could--weather permitting.  Mostly in the winter my safe place would be my room.  Especially when I got my own room.  When I was about 15 I built a fort in the rafters of the garage with carboard walls I painted flowers on.  It had a lamp, radio (The Beat Goes On by Sonny and Cher played at least twice every hour), sleeping bag, pillow and--naturally--paper and pens and books!  I have always felt safest when I was alone.  (Or with any of my animals.)  I have always felt I have this "safe place" deep inside of me...no matter what is done to me or happens to this body.  I found out that was absolutely positively true when I was beaten and raped at 17.  Nothing can touch your safe place...whether you are aware of it or not.  Your precious soul is safe.  Always safe.  

Till next week, my friends.  Know you are safe!  

Love and hugs from this old flower child--LOL!  :)

September 13, 2026 Sunday

Greetings!  Even though it is likely that no one will read this--lol!  Blogger has quit letting me know anyone I follow has posted a new blog or that anyone has commented on my blog ever since last Tuesday.  This is the worst glitch ever and lasting way too long.  :(  But I shall post as usual if I am able.

Liam reorganized my frig and put up these two huge art pieces I uncovered while unpacking that he and Ian made long ago when they were 5 and 8 years old. 

They got a kick out of seeing them and of how much room they took up on Gramma's frig--lol!

This heavy wooden step stool I used to reach the shelves over my washer and dryer at the old place I have been using as Allie's assistance to getting up on "her" red chair.  But it is a hazard to me during the night on trips to the bathroom--especially when I was coughing my head off.  Bumped into it again a couple of times since I've had this cough.  That stool was the cause of my second fall since I moved here.  Too risky.

So I decided to donate it.  Got a lightweight, plastic, smaller, collapsible stool for Allie to use that will be less likely to trip me.

She won't set one foot upon it.  Oh well.  Maybe time will work its wonders.  I'll give it a while.

Been a quiet week because I am still sick and had to cancel the lab for the rheumatologist and the eye surgery has been postponed until October 19th.  I am off of the methotrexate, though!  That is a good thing.  I didn't have to wean off of it, so I have been off for a week and a half.  My mouth sores are pretty much gone and I have been sleeping 9-10 hours for the past four nights!  I've been able to get up during the night to make a bathroom run and not have to stay up and cough for an hour--tada!  So--yes--I am on the mend again.  Let's hope this time there is no relapse, eh?  Fingers crossed and say a prayer.  :)  

The weather has actually taken a turn toward fall.  We have recently dropped down to the 70s during the day!!  So nice!  I have been able to crank the window open for Miss Allie since Saturday.  According to my phone we aren't even supposed to hit 80 for the next couple weeks!  Finally!  I am ready for my favorite season for sure.

Here's Allie giving me that look over my taking away her big wooden stool--lol!

Saw her head swiveling about watching something in the window well.  I was afraid it might be a lost bunny...

...but it was a damselfly or a dragonfly flitting about in the widow well.  I know you can't see it very well sitting there on the wooden ledge, but I tried.  ;)

I finally was in the studio this weekend.  One of those tasks that takes up time but you can hardly notice the change.  Went through and downsized all those supplies into smaller containers so they take up less room.  Made me very happy to finally be back in there again and getting my hands on art supplies, anyways--lol!

Well, that's about it from me.  I hope Blogger will post this and fix these big issues for us really soon!  I feel cut off from the world...from my world...my blogger family!  If anybody sees this please let me know.  Till next week...

September 6, 2026 Sunday

Greetings!

Another week of 2026 has passed.  The beginning of the week was more productive.  Right now...I feel like Allie--lol!  A nap would be nice.

I did get the empty satchels unboxed.  These two have sections inside.  They're on top of a box on that chair that has other empty containers, too.

This stack of satchels do not have the built-in dividers.  

This is the latest chaotic mess in the middle of the table I need to sort through.  Always worse before it gets better--lol!

What I did manage to do last week was empty all of the drawers in the soon-to-be paper cabinet or paper drawers.  :)  This empty bin now holds all of the Chinese brush painting supplies.

Not sure where I will be storing it but it is all in one place, at least.

All the six drawers are empty and ready for half-sheets of paper.

Why was I looking to find the empty satchels?  They fit perfectly in the hutches...

...and I have an empty one in the studio.  They all used to be in the hallway at my old apartment stacked into bookcases.  That is how much I have downsized!  :)

Well, I was feeling better and believed I was on the mend again.  Didn't even have a bad coughing jag for about 4 days.  (They last 1-2 or more hours.)  Just regular minor annoying coughing and hours of no coughing at all.  Then Wednesday and Thursday...I was sick as a dog again.  So much coughing up gunk that I never slept at all Wednesday night and wasn't even able to sleep until Thursday night.  So I decided I should make a trip to the walk-in clinic on Friday.

I have been so lucky lately to get nurses and doctors who actually listen because I do have extenuating circumstances as far as health issues go.  

Mainly I wanted a second opinion on my lungs being clear (just to make sure I didn't have pneumonia or something) and on my figuring what I have is likely viral and I am just taking forever to heal because of my compromised immune system.  I filled in Dr. Hanna on my history and current methotrexate issues and eye issues.  She checked me over.  I told her by that afternoon I was doing better than I had the last two days.  My lungs were clear as a bell.  She agreed that it was probably viral and antibiotics wouldn't help.  I asked about something to clear my sinuses maybe?  Prednisone.  Nope.  Steroids and I do not get along well.  (Already having issues with the methotrexate I'll explain shortly.)  She said whatever I have been doing has been working and to keep doing it.  Asked about if I had an air filter.  No.  Said I can use more saline nasal spray and the flonase more than once a day.  I am already on a 24 hour over the counter allergy pill for my sinuses...continue to do that.  Basically she thinks that I am taking a long time to heal for good reason but I am headed in the right direction.

After I got home...it was the day my rheumatologist wanted me to message her as to how I was doing.  Sent her a long message about weaning off of the methotrexate.  Let's just say that besides the not being able to get well and most likely having to postpone my eye surgery this month...I had a list of half a dozen side effects that have become pronounced since I went from 3 to 4 pills a week.  The last one being now I have scattered sores all over the underside of my tongue that look like blood blisters.  Plus I'm getting the darn rashes again.  Time to say goodbye to methotrexate.  With the holiday I won't hear back till next week sometime.  I'll probably have to decide myself on Wednesday if I should drop to 3 or 2 pills.  (I'd rather it was 2 and done.)  

I have to decide by Tuesday about calling the eye clinic to reschedule my eye surgery.  That is very likely how it will go.  I sincerely doubt that I am going to be miraculously well in the next two days--lol!  Luckily they have always said 3-6 months for the silicone oil to be in my eye and by mid-Sept it is 4 months I believe.  So we have some leeway.  

I also have an appointment for the lab again for the rheumatologist on Tuesday.  I warned her I may or may not make it.  Have to wait and see.  I will go if I am not coughing my head off that day--lol!  When I have an appointment it is pretty quick...in and out.  I fully expect my inflammation markers to be higher.  When she met me I had been on the oral steroids for quite a while and had been feeling the best I had in a long time.  Of course my inflammation markers were lower.  Since then she had me try the lower dose of steroids which I also still reacted to.  Since I have been off the steroids my inflammation has increased.  No surprise to me.  It has obviously been high for ages...hence the inflammation even in my eye.  It has been really high ever since immonotherapy for the cancer.  Five years now.  I still have mucositis (dry sticky mouth) and other issues I have never gotten rid of since I quit the Keytruda.  

I am glad she is so worried about my other eye getting inflammation...but there's only so much I can do about it.  I have tried diet changes--even carnivore and keto and am still low carb--because sugars feed inflammation.  But I cannot live with rashes, mouth sores, increased pain and all the rest.  So, that's the state of things right now.  I may be trying a different medication in the future (she said the methotrexate had the least side effects--sigh), but I need to get well and have a break before I do, that's for sure.  And I don't want to try anything new before I can finally get this eye surgery done.

So--meanwhile...I changed the shower curtain again-lol!   

My orders of more small storage containers arrived Friday.  

I have things to do and places to go.  Really need to feel better so I can do the things I need to do and go the places I need to go--lol! 

Leah is better but tired and still coughing some.  I told her that the only thing we could maybe do this weekend down here is tear papers in half...and that is only if we feel up to it.  Can always do it next weekend, right?  I have many projects to keep me busy...if I actually have any "busy" energy.  Such is life, right?  We do not always have control.

In the meantime I am going to rest up...like Miss Allie does every day--lol! 

Wild Card!

Love?  

Hummm.

There are endless kinds of love.

Romantic love and marriage...well that never worked out for me.  When I was growing up in the 50s as a young girl I thought I would get married to a wonderful man, live in a house, and have a few kids.  That was what was expected of girls back then.  Truly believed I could do a better job at it than my mom, though--lol!  She never really wanted to have to deal with boring kids all day--lol!  (Hence me starting to "babysit" my two younger siblings at age five.)

I seemed to attract the wrong men for me.  Girls were not supposed to make choices in those matters.  You waited until a boy approached you.  If girls pursued boys they got a "reputation".  Even if I had no idea what that meant exactly, I knew I didn't want one--lol!  

I went steady with an athletic boy when I was a junior in high school.  He dumped me beacuse I "wouldn't put out".  Senior year I changed my tune and decided to ask a "bad boy" to the Sadie Hawkins Dance where the girls asked the boys.  Didn't think he'd ever agree to go to a school activity because he was an anti-establishment wild child of the 60s.  To my shock he said yes and we went.  I was totally unprepared and had to borrow a costume to wear from a girlfriend.  We went together most of senior year.  Eventually I gave in to the constant advances when he threatened to break up with me.  Already had the first boyfriend do that so I believed him...and I had truly fallen madly in love and in my heart believed we were meant to be together forever (or I never would have slept with him!).  He dumped me, too.  Seemed to be because he didn't want to get married or settle down and even though I didn't talk about it he said he just knew that's what I wanted.  Men.  Who can figure them out.  Not me, obviously.

Right after we graduated and I had turned 17 I was grabbed off the street by three older guys in a car while walking home after a beach dance at the lake a few blocks from my home...beaten till I passed out, raped, and told they were going to kill me when they were done with me by the leader.  The third guy refused when it was his turn...long story...but I am still so proud of him that I can get teary-eyed just talking about his bravery.  (He got punched a couple of times.)  That taught me all about a different kind of love.  

That's the kind of love I have always been better at.  Loving human beings.  Empathy.  Feeling love for other souls on their paths.  Spiritual love.  Soul love.  I think I have had all kinds of experiences in this life to help me with that kind of love and forgiveness and compassion.  I was never destined for the house with the picket fence and the 50th wedding anniversary, I guess.  

What have I learned about love?  I didn't need to be a 50s wife.  I learned how to forgive my parents, the men in my life, the rapists...but I still have trouble with people in positions of authority who are cruel and abuse others.  I still have trouble with liars.  I know they have their own pain and weaknesses and fears, but they are all still the hardest for me to forgive and feel love towards.  So...love is the most precious, positive, and beautiful thing on this earth...but I still find myself succumbing to judgement, negatives, and ugly feelings.  It pains me that people would waste their soul energy on such darkness...but then why do I do it back?  

I am still learning about love.

Till next week, my friends.  :) :)

August 30, 2026 Sunday

Greetings!

Okay.  Another lesson for me not to assume.  I thought I had figured out how to be able to cut or tear the big sheets in half the way GA suggested in the drawers I thought were the largest in the living room.  Was very excited, even though it meant losing a strip of paper off of them.  It would work, right?  You know how over the moon I was!

A couple of days later when I was really tired and dosing off during the day...I kept seeing this dresser.  

The wide one under the die-cutting table that I have always used for art supplies.  Too small.  But I kept getting that dresser in my head.  So annoying.  It's obviously too small.  

Now this is something that has gone on different times in my life.  It's like I am having an argument with GA in my head.  Hard to explain.  But back when I was going to be on the street when I became disabled...long story but he bugged me over and over again with "West Winds" in my head.  No--their ad doesn't even have one bedrooms and I couldn't afford a two bedroom.  No way.  Finally it got to "Call Them"!  I did and they only had three one bedrooms so they didn't even advertise them in the paper but they were going to have one open because somebody had just been evicted.  And that is how I got into West Winds about 22 years ago.  

Anyways, Finally the dresser debate got to "Measure It"!  I reluctantly went in and measured the inside of those skinny drawers.  OMG!  16 3/4 by 23 1/2!!  A half sheet of 15 X 22 would fit just perfectly--with room to spare!  And there are six skinny drawers!  I could just about imagine him palm plant to the forehead saying "Finally"!  That was where he meant the papers would fit.  Never a-s-s-u-m-e, right?  

I felt very foolish (carrying around these unweildly huge boxes for a couple of decades never even thinking about cutting them in half)...and so very grateful.  I have always wanted a set of paper drawers and have looked at them for decades.  But they are huge because they are for the full sheets and super expensive.  Little did I know I bought a set of drawers that are perfect for half-sheets many years ago!  Duh!  

Now I was even more excited!  Told Leah we can just tear or cut them in half after all.  (They are used to GA things happening--as is anyone who has known me for a long time.)  

So, I needed to finish the project I had started with the ink pads...

...and the inkpad refill bottles.  They have all found new homes.

I finioshed cleaning the three Prefonte fountain pens...

...filled them and they are with the rest of the Prefontes in the FP trays.

Then I started emptying my new half-sheet paper drawers--lol!  

Moved all the tins and boxes from the top two drawers out on to the kitchen table.

I was trying to just fill the empty containers that were already on the shelves like the Clutterbug talked about.  It got a bit chaotic, but I got the two drawers emptied and into containers.

Trouble is...I ran out of the smaller containers.  Was wasting a lot of space, but I just used what I had for now.  Come September I will be ordering more containers.  They all need their forever homes, too--lol!

Allie likes it when I am busy...but not for so long that she can't get her laptime--lol!

Once I had them all in containers I drug them all out in sections to make index card labels I can put in each one.  .

I put the brand, name of the item, and any qualitities they have.  Made a point of tracking down whether they were water soluable or water resistent.  Many of them have been in other containers for years so I had to find the information online.  Took longer than expected.  Worked on it for a couple of days...but I finally put them back.  

All the water soluable supplies are in the left bookcase and the water resistent in the right one.  When the new containers arrive (hopefully this week sometime) I will downsize all the containers I can so they'll take up less room.  Plus I need larger containers for a ton of other types of supplies--lol!

That's why this weekend I asked Dagan and Leah to search through boxes in the storage room to find the ones with the empty satchels in them.  Leah is also going to cut my hair and Dagan is going to empty the litter box and clean it out with the hose outside.  I usually do that in the fall every year.  Dagan might clean out Blink's litter boxes, too.

Since we are all kind of on the mend (except Dagan who never got this) there's not anything bigger than that planned for the weekend for Dagan and Leah.  (As you probably have noticed they usually do things with my apartment on Sundays.)  

I am feeling better little by little.  Going to be a busier month in September as far as appointments go.  Labs, pre-op physical, virtual appointments, eye surgery and followups on that.  I also hope to continue to feel better so that I can get a lot done in the studio.  Well, the eye surgery will set me back mid-month...but besides that.

Allie on her cat couch soaking up the rays.  How did she ever live without it?   

The boys started school on Thursday.  Ian is now in Middle School--which is still Junior High to me.  He came down that night after dinner to show me his new schedule for the first quarter and tell me about the differences.  We watched some more Beaver, too.  We always enjoy that.  In fact he was excited to set it up on the TV for us.  He stayed until after 8:30...but bedtime is back to 9pm on school nights.  Mama texted us to remind us--lol!

I am very happy to not be coughing as much and to gradually be feeling better.  It's like this (could have been bronchitis) was slow to progress but it is now just as slowly retreating.  Feels so good to be back plugging away in the studio organizing and sorting.  Baby steps can work wonders for my spirits--lol!

Oh, I almosr forgot--Wild Card!

Goodness!  Never know what you are going to get with these--lol!  Well, honestly...I don't think about it much at all.  Yet I am very aware of it.  Had a few close calls even in my childhood.  A few more in my yonger days.  Having Dagan and told he would die soon.  Getting cancer, being allergic to chemo, going on immunotherapy to keep me alive for a year or two...well, it's always been around, I guess.  But I do not dwell on it at all.  I know this to be true.  I have had practice--lol!  

For as long as I can remember I have always tried to live my life like each day could be my last.  If you do your best to be as good a human being as you can muster, to be kind as you can be, to learn from your mistakes, and to try to make ammends when you do screw up...then I figure you're as ready as you will ever be on any given day.  I know I could have done better at times but as the messed up human being that I am I have done the best I could so far.  If I keep my soul in mind and try to stay on a decent path...I don't have to think about death.  It will come when it comes.  I suspect it usually feels like a surprise...even if you know it is near.  ;)

On that cheerful note--lol!  Best to you and yours.  Hug your loved ones--two or four footed--in person or virtually.  Be kind--in person or virtually.  Till next week...  :) :)