June 13, 2022 Monday--2pm

Good afternoon!

There's a bumper crop of cottontails this year--LOL!  One little baby has just about taken up residence here.

Such a little cutie.  Too small to be the petunia-eating culprit...but will grow up into one.

We have had some darker, overcast days...

...and some sunnier ones.  But little rain.

Been a quiet week filled with things like taking trash out to the dumpster, watering out on the patio every other day, vacuuming up kitty litter Annie drags all over the place, writing letters, doing laundry, and cooking (hotdish, soup, and made rice).  Watched a couple of DVDs (final season of Inspector Lewis) and two more DVDs came in the mail today.  Had my video call with the boys over dinner on Wednesday.  I'm just so happy I can do all those things.  :) 

Leah cancelled on our Thursday night video call--too tired and wanting to go to bed early.  They are really busy this summer.  Besides home schooling--Ian has tennis lessons and golf lessons, they are off to the park playgrounds quite often, trips to the zoo (I gave them a 2022 family pass for Christmas last year), visiting, picnics, visitors, etc.  Nice that they are able to do more things this year, but the heat and humidity are draining, for sure.  Makes me so happy, though!  Got to do more while you can these days.  

Watched the hearing a day late and will watch the one today sometime later, too, I imagine...or parts of it.  Had that weird arc of light in my eye again briefly on Friday.  If it happens again I will probably have to go in to see my eyedoctor.  Macular puckers could be up to some nonsense.  Had a few pajama days.  Just one of those weeks that has flown by.  

Annie is still jumping up on my chair on her own.  This is what I see--her little head peeking over the footrest.  She rocks back and forth a couple times and then has made it every time so far.  Makes me so very happy.  Makes her happy, too.  (We all hate to lose our independence, don't we?)

Saw a half grown cottontail out there, too.  That one is probably big enough to nibble on my flowers.

You know there are parent-sized, full grown ones about, too.  LOL!

It turned really hot--for up here anyways.  Been in the 80s and near 90 for days with like 75% humidity.  Had to close up and turn on the AC.

When I am out to water...well, it looks like someone has mowed a good-sized patch of grass in front of the planters.  

Well, guess who?

That baby bunny (growing fast) parks itself there to chew on the grass.  As you can see, it sprawls out in the heat on its belly and grazes--LOL!  Has made itself quite to home.  Doesn't even always hop away anymore when people walk down the sidewalk.

You'll have to pardon my rain splattered patio doors.  I am hoping it is nice out tomorrow afternoon when Katie comes and that maybe she can clean the glass for me.

I water out there about every other day.  On the days I don't I usually put clean water in the bird dish using a plastic gallon jug (which I also set out to use for watering the inside plants).  When I refilled it one day it had overflowed so I set the wet jug on the rug in the pantry to let it dry off before I stuck it behind the door.  Mistake.  Look who found it!

Annie is always so thirsty.  She has followed me into the bathroom every time--even in the middle of the night--just to climb in the shower and beg me to pour a little glass of water in there for her to lick up--for months and months.  It's our routine.  After I wash my hands I have to fill the little drinking cup and pour it on the side of the shower so she can lick off the water.

Well, now she is waiting and crying by the bathroom door as I wash my hands and wants me to go add water to the top of the water jug in the pantry!!  Good grief--what we do for our critters.  I'm sure she's convinced it tastes better than any other water.  Her actual water dish is right there just a few feet away--ROFL!  I don't know how much longer I will want to deal with the jug of water in the way in the pantry--LOL!  But--hey--she's old...and she trusts me to look out for her welfare...and Annie thinks this is important--LOL!  So--for a while longer, for sure.

Oh, BTW--the coleus I cut back that had frostbite...died.  Not a surprise.  The new ones battered by the storm are alive, but not growing much at all.  

Look about the same a week or so later.  Maybe filled out a tiny bit, but the leaves look all stunted.

Fingers crossed they bounce back.

The rest of them are doing okay.

The back coleus have flowered!  That usually doesn't happen till fall?

I think the rabbits have let up on the petunias finally.

But not one of the four red geraniums has had a flower?

They usually do really well for me.

The other blooming coleus.

I planted half the amount of flowers as last year but they are doing fairly well and filling out.  They were way too crowded last year.  I had gotten carried away by the new planter boxes--LOL!  The weather has been stressful (and damaging) for them but they are surviving.

One of these days McFamily will show up out there to put the boards under the planters.  They'll have to all come because it takes two people to tip/lift these big planters so we need Dagan.  I might be able to tip (not positive) but I know I can't lift with my bum arm and cranky back--LOL!  Leah says they're too heavy for me to tip probably.  Hopefully they won't need actual lifting, but if they do--we will definitely need two people.  The boys would come with, of course, but not be helping with this project. 

They're so busy--so whenever they can make it and work it in is fine with me.  :) :)

Anyways, that's the week from my little corner of the world.  Annie is sleeping on the floor near my chair.

I am going to heat up some soup and watch one of the DVDs that came today.  Both are movies this time.  2 Guns with Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg from 2013 (how did I miss this one?) and The Courier with Benedict Cumberbatch from 2021 (I'll watch anything with Benedict--same for Denzel).  Glad I have AC.  They predicted 80 and it is already 85.

I have Katie coming to clean tomorrow and it's infusion day on Friday.  Hope all goes well at the clinic again.  I do feel so very blessed.  My days are filled with gratitude and contentment.  Spread the love, people!  

Life is good!  :) :)

June 6, 2022 Monday--1:15pm

Good afternoon!

This Friday on the 10th I will have been blogging for 16 years!  Amazes me.  First blog was in 2006--goodness!  How time flies!  I actually surprised myself in that I have managed to post once a week this past year with the rollercoaster cancer ride.  Yay, me!!

I am loving the clouds against the blue sky again.  Never seems to be the same sky in the winter months.

Let's get on with the week.

Monday

We had rain and thunder but not much wind during the day.  The wind and the storms picked up that evening.  I worked on switching over to summer clothes most of the day.

Tuesday

The winds were crazy during the night and still hung in there most of the day.  Nearly blew over a young tree at McFamily's!

Leah battled the wind to at least pull it back upright and stake it till she could do a proper bracing job when the wind died down.

The wind quite literally blew the leaves off the one new coleus...

...and knocked down the other three.  Removed a few leaves off of those, too, but they all look like they are surviving since then.

Boy!  My planters have really been taking a beating this year.  Frost, wind, rabbits (and they might be eating the geranium buds, too), storms...a slow start but I hope they hang in there.

I finally finished the clothes switching Tuesday night.  Five bins of winter clothes to go to the garage...

...and a big lawn bag full of donations.

Wednesday

Dagan came by to bring all the bins and the donation bag to the garage.  I worked on letters all day and watched The Valhalla Murders on Netflix streaming...which totally interfered with my concentrating on letters because I kept chuckling to myself.  Why?  The Icelandic series was dubbed and it was just so funny to me because I have closed captions on all the time because my hearing is so bad...and I have never seen subtitles and dialogue so mismatched for no apparent reason.  

The general meaning was usually the same but why not use the words spoken?  I wondered if the subtitles were taken off the actual script or what was going on?  Maybe the people writing the subtitles were just having a really fun time that day--LOL!

Some examples:  

Actor--Really?  Subtitle--Oh, come on!  

Actor--No way!  Subtitle--There. There. 

Actor--What?  How is that possible?  Subtitle--That can't be right!

Anyways, it was a hoot!  Distracted from the show and the plot, though.  If you watch it don't turn the CC on--LOL!

Thursday

Had a bit worse headache than normally do.  Took it easy, worked on letters and ended up binge-watching Cog Hill Farm videos on YouTube.  I've been following their vlogs for a few months and find them so uplifting (and I love animals).  Come to find out they also have a podcast video channel on YouTube.  I have never gone back to watch prior videos of anyone I follow before (can hardly keep up as it is--lol!)--but I went back about a year and am slowly watching both the vlogs and the pod casts.  I wanted to go back to before they bought the new, bigger farm they have been putting together from scratch.  Just sweet positive people.  Been through a lot I discovered through the podcasts.  

Have any of you ever gone back to posts prior to when you came across someone online?  I know a couple of you have gone back and read my blog posts from the beginning!  That is just plain humbling, I tell you.  Bless  you!!  

Anyways, late in the night I got an aural migraine.  Haven't had them since after I had cataract surgery.  I finally fell asleep for a couple of hours--woke up to a sharp, painful headache around my right eye, but the flashing lights were gone.  (Was like a pixelated arc.)  Slept again.  Woke up to a regular old bad headache--and been just my regular daily headaches since then--whew! 

Friday

Maintenance came to fix the washing machine.  A bolt had come off and he got it back on again.  He just pulled off the dangly foam thingie on the patio door.  (I had almost done that myself, but I am glad he did it and not me--lol!)

Saturday

The new binder I ordered arrived.  Now this is how I can spend most of an entire day...doing things like this that nobody understands why a person would bother--ROFL!

Well, you know I have the trays of inked up fountain pens that I rotate as I write in my journals and with letters.  (I also use gel pens for letters--but my journals are strictly fountain pens.)  To keep track of which pen has which ink in it...I keep a written record.  

This is what I had been using.

A binder from JetPens.  (The sticker on the first page is a gift I got in a Goulet Pens order.)

This type of binder is very thin (which I liked) but it doesn't hold enough pages for me.

So the pages stick and occasionally the rings just pop open--and it's a beast to get the pages back in and the rings closed again.  This was about the third method I have tried to use to keep track of my inked fountain pens over the years.  I had wanted something thin but this just wasn't working.  (I'm very optimistic stubborn and keep trying long past when I should have given up.)  I need to be able to move pens and their pages around, too, so I do need some kind of binder.  Found that out the hard way right off the bat.

Well, I finally relented and got a small sized regular old-fashioned binder.

Supposed to hold 100 pages!  (I have between 50-60 pens inked up usually.)

I also ordered some pretty dividers I could number for the trays...

...and some extra paper.

I know...such a weird and tedious way to spend an entire Saturday...

...but this should work well!

Much fatter than I had wanted, but I think it will work beautifully.

I really do think my search for the perfect way to keep my FP ink record is finally over.  Only FP nuts will understand my delight--ROFL!  But I am SOOOO happy!  :) :)

Oh and I don't like to waste paper.  Since I had just redone the old skinny binder a few months ago (*sigh*)...well, I cut down all the unused parts of the sheets so I can use them for scratch paper.

I keep track of where I am in rotation with little colored post-it flags--one for daily journaling and one for letter writing.  I kind of bookmark my spots in the trays with old highlighter pens.  Every time I start a new pen tray I go through all those pens in that tray to make sure they are working well, can fit the rest of the sample vial if there's any left, and clean & fill any pens that need it.  I use scratch paper to test the pens out so these will last me a good long time.  :) 

I keep my in-use ink samples in alphabetical order in a drawer on my desk.

Yes, I am also an ink sample nut.

Once or twice a year I stock up on ink samples.  I should show you how much of an ink fanatic I am!  I have an entire small drawer full in the bedroom right now because I recently restocked a bunch for my birthday, as you may remember.

There are baskets for color ranges--blues, greens, blacks/greys, turquoises, reds/oranges, browns, etc.  I really do go through a LOT of ink samples in a year.  Probably 2/3 to 3/4 of these will be gone by next June.

Sunday

I finally caught up with the laundry and the washer didn't break or go crazy--or the dryer--tada!  I even got everything put away, too.  Now that would have been such a strange and funny thing to say pre-cancer.  I had always put everything away when I did laundry--ever since I started doing my own laundry at somewhere around 9 or 10 years old.  (Back when there was a whole lot of ironing involved--that might take another day or two.)  Even with chronic fatigue with my fibro I managed to get it all done.  (It's that optimistic stubborn, set-in-my-ways Swede, I think.)  You just never know how your life will change.

Well, today I am blogging from my comfy chair.  Annie keeping me company--wondering why I got up and down a couple of times.  Humans!

I should be up at the table but was too tired.  This is the organized chaos I have around me and where I write my letters 90% of the time.  

Looks like a mess but I know where everything is and each type of pen and highlighter in those black mesh pen cups (mostly my gels).

My life has changed a lot in this past year...and yet, in some ways, not that much.  Ha!  Way to the right above is my forehead swiping thermometer peeking up.  That's new this last year--LOL!  

Anyways, time to get something to eat.  Will probably finish watching the final season of Grace and Frankie...do some paper chatting...water the patio flowers...and pop in over at Cog Hill Farm.  ;)  It's a sunny day and 72 degrees.  Beautiful!  Till next week, my friends...

May 30, 2022 Monday--1:30pm

Good Afternoon!

Already blog day and I thought...I never got to bookcards, switching summer clothes, or figuring out how to use the sauna or the vacuum--ROFL!  So how did the week fly by, feel so full, and me be so exhausted?  LOL! 

I have been delighted with the view these days.  Clouds have always been a fascination for me and now there's a spot of color in the planters, too. 

Monday

Leah showed up on my patio and planted the new coleus for me.  They were smaller and in a set of four so two got planted on the ends of the front planters.  I asked for the more yellow ones.

She removed the other dying coleus and we stuck it in a container just in case it might survive.

Noticed someone has been eating my petunias!  They are taking The Critter Cafe a step too far--LOL!

We assume it is the rabbits--probably cottontails as I don't see much of the arctic hares in the summer and they are so much taller they could stand and reach the whole of the planter.  

I don't think I have planted petunias before.  Maybe once early on--can't remember.  

But not something I will likely repeat.  I checked online and rabbits do love petunias.

So my pretty speckled petunias have become rabbit snacks.  I hope they leave them alone...but they seem to continue nibbling on the one side in most of the planters.  Time will tell.

The transplanted dying coleus was almost dead in another day so I chopped the whole top off and we'll see if it comes back or not.  Those leaves were brittle-crispy.

I haven't been throwing out any seed for the birds but I have been tossing out mealworms on to the grass now and then.  The robins love them--and love to bathe in the water dish, too!  

One day this grackle parked itself in the grass on its belly to chow down on meal worms.  Was there for like ten minutes--looked like it was nesting--LOL!

It looked funny, but that's not normal behavior so I do hope it was perfectly fine--just a bit eccentric.  

Anyways, Leah also did bring the summer clothes bins over to the front door for me in her car so I could wheel them in on my cart.  Took two trips.  Hopefully I will get back to that this week.  ;)

Tuesday

Was a pajama day with a little puttering.

Wednesday

I started these new capsules Leah got me that are supposed to help with digesting fats.  Leah dropped off groceries from a Cashwise pick up.  I wasn't feeling so well.  Turned out I think I had a terrible reaction to those supplements--stomach cramps and diarrhea.  Was up till almost dawn.

Not taking any more of those right now--lol!

Thursday

Leah and her brother, Aaron, made their monthly trip inside Costco.  Dropped off my groceries in the late afternoon.  I was washing clothes and when it came to the spin cycle the machine made a huge clanking bang and then sounded like it was going to spin right up and off the floor!  Like when a washer is really badly out of balance but worse than I have ever heard.  I shut it off and checked.  Didn't seem out of balance but I moved things around anyways and tried again.  Awful racket and washer almost bouncing or slamming back and forth.  The end.  

Called the office for maintenance.  But I don't like them to come when I'm not here because of Annie mostly.  She is so terrified of strangers and loud noises--and that would be both.  I had the clinic on Friday so she said he'd come Monday afternoon then.  (I always ask for afternoons.)  But we forgot about Memorial Day so I doubt I will see him till tomorrow.

I wrung out the clothes as best I could and it took about 4-5 hours to dry them--LOL!  But they are done and put away.  Lucky it broke at the end of the cycle, I guess.  :)

I also told her to have maintenance look at this piece of foam stuff hanging down from the track of my patio door, too.  You may have noticed it in pics before--LOL!  (Yes, procrastinating again.)

I did see a pair of partridges and tried to quick get a photo.  Not the best and only got one of them.  I don't have the pleasure of their company very often anymore so I am always happy to see them pop by.  They also like the mealworms.  ;)

Friday

Clinic day.

Other than I was tired and having a weirder leg day so had to sit down more often--it was best case scenario all the way!  My port worked right off the bat.  Dr Kobrossy kept his mask on without being asked.  We were pleasant and polite--and he was quick!  My bloodwork was good (1.4) so I was able to get my infusion.  And we were able to get an appointment with the lady part-time doctor in three weeks.  Wonderful!  No issues at all!  Whoohoo!

Leah and I kind of figured Kobrossy would behave.  He's become almost shy in the hallway if we have to wander past each other.  A quick nod and he lowers his eyes.  Even Dagan automatically guessed who Kobrossy was when he'd never met him and had never had a description, because of how Kobrossy acted (and myself) when we went past...just polite curt nods.  Everyone else is so friendly and I am friendly to them, too.

I'm sure Kobrossy is puzzled as to why I don't want him as my doctor anymore.  He obviously has only so much people skill available to him.  After saying how great the tumors were shrinking and how I was doing well...he made some remark about how I was in a better mood and something about depression.  Honestly I wasn't listening to him much--LOL!  Just waiting to find out if I could get my infusion.  Which I could!

I did mention to Leah afterwards that it is actually funny that I never really got depressed even when I could hardly walk.  A bit cranky sometimes--which I would apologize for.  Was that inability-to-function crankiness from pain and exhaustion...and I always feel so badly if I take out my grumpiness on anyone else and am short with them.  But I never went into a depression.  Even back when my left leg swelled up for no reason, remember that?  I maybe should have, but I just am focused on muddling through whatever it is I have to endure.

I think Koborssy may be looking for a reason.  And, naturally, it has nothing to do with him--ROFL!  That's fine.  He can think whatever he wants.  I won't have to see him very often and as long as he is pleasant and keeps his mask on and is quick as he was--we're good.

Leah came over after.  We both kept our masks on.  I stayed in my chair mostly while she made a quick graduation card and did the print outs for the insides of Ian's birthday invitations.  As neither of us could remember--lol!--I checked our card bins and we DO have a set of Christmas cards made up for this year and I have a set of birthday cards for next year.  Whew!  That takes the pressure off. 

I was so drained after Leah left--yup!--another 5 hour nap snuck up on me.  So I was up till almost dawn and then slept all morning.  My hours are so out of whack.

Saturday

My legs were better.  (I never know from day to day and there seems to be nothing predictable about it--but at least I DO have better leg days now.)  So I baked some chicken and some fish.  Watered patio plants AND, for the first time, used the stool to water my inside plants... and didn't feel in too much danger.  My weird legs held up okay.

  Couldn't avoid seeing that my plants inside really do need Leah's magic touch.  (She used to work at Baker Nursery for several years).  So I got in touch with her.  She knew this was coming as she (and Dagan) have been watering my plants since last fall.  So, sometime in the near future Leah will come over and she will bring out the supplies from my garage (folding table, potting soil, etc) to use out on the lawn by my patio.  

We plan to repot the Phils (Baby Phil and Baby-baby Phil) into one big pot.  The spider--we plan to pot the babies into yogurt containers to give away and spruce up the poor mama plant.  Maybe even plant a couple babies in with the mama plant, too.  And if the coleus stump has survived we can deal with that, too.  I will try to remember to get pictures, of course--before, during, and after.

Sunday

Set up my bullet journal for June.  (I do so love my bullet.)  And I set up letters in the portfolios. 18 of them!   

 

They weren't all strictly returning letters/cards/long emails.   I also set up a few for people I haven't heard from or written to for a while.  That will keep me out of trouble, eh?  And take me a long time!  True snail mail--LOL!  

Oh--SO funny!  See this stack of red trays under the front tray there?  All this time I thought they were empty.

Nope!  They obviously don't have a lot on them but they each have some signatures that need covers--LOL!

Mostly odd papers and odd sizes.  So there's that--LOL!  I really, really need some good energy, good-leg, productive days.  Do have laundry done and food to eat and have three weeks off from health visits--so I can hopefully have some good days this coming week so that I can get a few things done.  Fingers crossed.

[That's my only complaint about Keytruda--always being tired, listless, and foggy-brained.  But it is working and shrinking those tumors!!]

We've been hitting 80 degrees since Friday.  Severe thunderstorms passing through last night.  Well, very early this morning--I was still awake.  *sigh*  Still heavy, sticky air but cooler so far--71 degrees right now.  :)

I'll close with a picture Leah sent me of the boys in the ant masks they colored.

They sure do fun art projects.

It's still clouded over.  A grey day.  Radar shows more storms might be coming later.  The planter flowers are all perked up and happy.  Funny how plants just love thunder and lightning.  I do, too.  Annie--not so much--LOL!

Till next week.

Spread that love and kindness.

The world needs it.  :) :)