December 12, 2022 Monday--2:15am

 Good middle-of-the-night, I guess.  I see by the times I've posted that my life has been like this now for over a month.  Questionable that I will make it in to the clinic this Friday, either--but we'll see.  Only time will tell, as they say.

I've been working on Christmas cards all week.  I think I only have about half a dozen left...so I should have the rest out this week.  At least something is going well in my life, eh?  LOL!  

It has snowed a little more.

I got laundry done Tuesday and am still putting it away little by little.  Been that kind of week.   

Had a new visitor to the Critter Cafe this week. 

A blue jay!

It has returned several days to grab all the peanuts in the seed mix--LOL!

I figured out how to sign my lease online.  Too sick to make it down to the office.  Turns out my rent is going up $30 a month.  I haven't heard anything back through this online portal thingie.  Hope it worked okay.  I'm sure I'll hear from them if it didn't.

Sparrows and the partridges are here every day.

Leah and the boys dropped off groceries for me Thursday afternoon.  Dagan stopped by after work on Thursday, too, to bring out my trash and haul some donations to the garage.  He was starting to get sick now, too.

I cancelled my infusion on Friday.  They made me another appointment for this coming Friday.  Whether I can make it or not remains to be seen.  There's been some improvement but still have diarrhea without warning...so who knows.  But by Thursday again I will have to decide.

Meanwhile--Leah and the boys have been feeling better.  Trent, their friend, made it over this past weekend to start on the building of the apartment!!  Step one (well, besides having to empty the basement--which is nearly done) was to re-make this wall in the maintenance room under the stairs into a half wall so that my washer and dryer can be tucked under there.

And they got it finished!

So this is where my washer and dryer will go.

Next Leah is going to make an appointment for the floor to be cleaned, polished, stained, and sealed.  We picked a walnut brown color.  :)

Exciting news!!

Construction has officially begun!!

Been another rough week.  I am seeing small bits of improvement.  It is up in the air as to whether I will have Keanna come to clean on Tuesday.  Remains a no thus far.  Waiting to see how today goes.  (Honestly...doubtful.)

I have started watching A Touch of Frost.  Many seasons to keep me busy.  I think I am about to end season three.  Also watching Doc Martin with many seasons.  Am about to start season 6 where I think he is supposed to get married (finally--lol!).  I was crushed when his aunt died.  I loved her character!  

So, mostly was a week of binge watching those two shows & YT videos, sleeping randomly around the clock, and working on Christmas cards.  Hoping for better days this coming week.  I have seen a little improvement, at least--so, heading in the right direction.  I'll take it!  

Oh, and I am not fasting anymore.  Not all that hungry, but not fasting.  Drinking lots of fluids.  Hanging out with Allie.  Ignoring the purging mess around me--LOL!  Did a little bit of puttering, but not much.  Waiting to see if we get another snowstorm today through Wednesday.  I'm doing okay.  Only about half a dozen Christmas cards left that get letters...so that's farther than I expected.  :) :)

Well, as I get pictures or videos of the apartment in progress you will see them on the blog, too!  Leah and I were texting back and forth about accent wall colors this weekend.  Seems more real now that they have started the actual work, you know?  The sawing and hammering has begun.  The floor will be done.  I am so happy to have this to focus on.  Helps a lot through these rougher times.  Whoohoo!

I plan to just rest and heal this week.  Been doing that and it is starting to work.  ;)  Have a great week, my friends.  Till next time...  

December 5, 2022 Monday--4am

Good early morning.

Yup--you guessed it.  My hours are still flipped.  Many days I am not actually sleeping much during the day, either.  This has been a very crappy week.  Literally.  I have managed very little.  Emptied the bottom shelf in glass bookcase #1.

Was shoving things in glass bookcase #2...but decided that I should empty one of them at least.

Monday Ian was better but not well--no fever, anyways.  I had had over a week after the booster feeling rotten.  The chills, headache, and painful body aches subsided but the diarrhea remained...all week long.  And then got much, much worse.  I've been not eating very often but when I do it goes right through me.  Wish me luck--haven't eaten since about this time on Friday morning and I just ate a little now.  I'll see what happens.

I don't really like to bring up these crazy side effects I've been living with for months but I did mention having the pasty poop.  Seems like the covid booster shot set off the keytruda IBS side effects and pasty has been traded off for watery diarrhea.  Queasy all the time.  Feel generally crappy.  And I am just waiting to see what happens now that I ate about a cup of food.

I am drinking lots of liquids.

I am supposed to have my infusion on Friday this week.  If this doesn't subside I am seriously thinking about cancelling.  1) this hasn't totally let up yet but I haven't eaten for two days & wanted to know if it was going to get worse again if I eat, 2) it is hard to go anywhere with diarrhea when you can hardly make it to the bathroom right down the hallway, 3) I think my entire system is screaming for a break to heal for a while...to be left alone to recover.  I can't live like this.  I don't want to go into detail about how bad this has been but it is the worst diarrhea I've ever experienced--not with flus, not with over 20 years of IBS, or the time after the shingles shot where I partially shat myself leaving the eye doctors last year.  I could keep all this to myself, but I have always been honest with you all.  

In case this happens to someone else on keytruda, I want them to know they are not alone.  At the clinic they ask me every time many questions, one of which is have you had any diarrhea or constipation?  Pasty poop the last couple months or more hasn't bothered them.  Well, now I can say most definitely yes--a most excellent and prolonged case of diarrhea. lol!  It's on their list so there must be others who have dealt with this and now they might pay more concerned attention?

Needless to say--but I will--I cancelled Keanna for cleaning on Tuesday.  She's supposed to come back in two weeks.

Liam was sick by Tuesday.

Leah felt miserable with a terrible headache on Saturday and both the boys were still coughing.

Not a good week for me or McFamily.  Dagan's the only one who hasn't gotten sick yet.

I fasted from Monday afternoon till Wednesday afternoon so I could make a trip to the garage with donations.  10 degrees and windy--brr!  I thought I'd make a trip to the dumpster, too--but felt too awful after the one trip.  Ate and so it started full force again in a couple of hours.

Fasted again till Friday morning.  Did get my bullet journal set up for December during the night...before it all hit me again on Friday...and Saturday and into Sunday.  Been fasting since Friday.  Needed to be able to walk my check down to the office at 2am (in my robe--been in pjs all week) and check my mail from this week.  I think I also went down Wednesday in the middle of the night in my robe before I broke my fast, come to think of it.  Been a blur.  Hard for me to know what day it actually is or if it is day or night by the clock.  Good thing my Alexa or Hey Google contraptions know--lol!  I'd sometimes nap three times in one day and it is very disorienting to wake up three times and it be the same day--lol!  (In fact, I just asked Alexa to be sure it is my Monday blog day.)

So that is how my week went.  Worse in other ways than last week after the covid shot.  Good grief!  Sometimes I wonder how much more of this I can take.  And yet...I'm "getting better", folks--ROFL!  The tumors were shrinking last time I had a scan and were really small.  Lord--just get me through till my next scan in January.

Allie has known something is wrong.  She follows me back and forth to the bathroom and wants some reassurance...and then parks herself to wait for me on the rug...whether it is in front of the toilet or waiting for me to get out of the shower again.  (Yup--that bad.)  

She comes up often for some lovin--some neck and head scratching.  Here she is with that spacy look when I've been rubbing her neck and she's waiting for me to continue.  If I don't pretty quickly she gets up and rubs all over me-lol!

It had been warm enough to melt a lot of the snow.

Got cold again and snowed some more--but I never even got a photo.  Most of the time by the time I was awake and remembered...it was dark out.

All week (after I'd been fasting long enough to be able to move about a little) I'd gradually  work on moving things out of glass bookcase #2.

So now that one can be sold, too.  I need my desk and this bookcase to be moved to the garage before we can put them up for sale.  My hours are too crazy.  Leah can get into my garage and meet any buyer there without me even being there.  Kind of nice!  :)

I used a couple tubs and a box to just cram some of the stuff in...to go through it later, you know?

But I did purge a lot already as I have been going through things.

Got some photos from Leah on our shared One Drive account. 

Ian and Liam.

The McFamily photo by somebody at one of the family Thanksgiving gatherings.

(I try not to post pictures of the rest of the family members on either side or their friends & their families because I don't really have their permission, you know--but it is fun for me to see them.)

Leah found these at IKEA.  Well, I don't know what you'd call them...a kind of zippered portable desk?

The boys each have one...

...that they can use on car rides.  They really liked them!

Pics of the boys at a Thanksgiving gathering.

At home.  Liam and...

Ian.

Liam with his hair in a mullet type combing!

The boys watching something on TV someplace--lol!

Well, that's it from here.

I'm hoping for a better week, but I don't know how much will change, to be honest.  If I am still feeling like crap by Thursday you can bet I will cancel on Friday.  I'll have to.  Meanwhile...Allie is having a bath right now...and she does keep tabs on me.

I make sure she is fed and watered...and the birds get some food, too.  Critter Cafe has warmed up to 21 degrees tonight.  But our high is only supposed to be 24...and then get colder for a few days again.  If I get to anything this week it will be Christmas cards!!  That's top on the list this week.  Messes...piles & stacks...everywhere I look but I don't really care--lol!  Just want to make it through this week and work on Christmas cards.

I hope you all have a good week.

This too shall pass, right?

Till next time... 

November 28, 2022 Monday--4:15am

Good early morning!

Yes, my hours have ended up flipped again--lol!  Oh well.  At least I have usually been sleeping a bit better when I do sleep.  Figured I'd start the blog and see how far I get--once again--as long as I am still awake.

I did do laundry last Monday and (as suspected) never put anything away until I felt more human on Wednesday.  But by Wednesday I decided to dig in and begin my 15 minute purging/reorganizing sessions.

Allie commandeered one of the smaller boxes.

It's been quite a domino process all week...and is still total chaos--lol!  I began by emptying the top two shelves in the bookcase next to my desk...and then filling them with different stuff--desk stuff.  On the second shelf, though, is what I saved out that I use on New Years Eve (but that got moved elsewhere).

Filled my very first moving box!!  With all my crystals. Tibetan bell, etc.  Used my old red towels to wrap things in.

The bathroom is finished except for the one bin.  Feels great!

Besides working on sorting through the desks, bookcases, and rolly carts...I had some things arrive!

A bamboo tea bag storage case!

I love it!  Looks better than I actually expected because it was not expensive.

I never did show you the new smaller binder I'll be using to redo the big brown one.

These were actually right on top of each other for size comparison but it doesn't look like it.  I tried a couple of times and couldn't get the top angle right...but you get the idea.  A lot smaller.

Haven't gotten started on that project yet.

Allie watched some real CatTV in the evening.  Sun goes down early these days so the patio CatTV goes off the air around 4:30pm--lol!

Over the week I kept moving things and changing my mind--tweaking--LOL!

Took me three days to just label, seal, and move that first box into the bedroom...but it's a start!

I kept plugging away on my desk--a section at a time.

Kept adding to the bookcase...and moving things about.  Just not sure where everything will go and what should be where.  I'll know more what should be in which rolly cart and what should be in the bookcase as I actually use everything--like to set up letters and journal every day.  

So, in the meantime, it is just a big mess.

Here I had most all of the hutch emptied but not the drawers below.

Discovered that I am going to need a 2-drawer file cabinet.  Can put it in the closet in the studio when I move.  I have the file drawer from my desk; an old metal filebox I bought in high school that holds all the marriage & divorce papers, birth certificates, and such; and in a closet somewhere I have a big bin filled with files that have to do with art & craft stuff.  

I found a metal file cabinet I liked on sale at Office Max and Leah ordered it for pick it up sometime this week.  I'll be able to use it right now.  The first piece of "furniture" I can actually organize before I move!  Exciting!

I got the third shelf emptied in the bookcase by Friday.

A lot of stuff is accumulating in the pantry that needs to be hauled to the garage for donations.

I plan to try to do that before Keanna comes on Tuesday.  But if I don't get to it she and I can haul it out together.

Chaos!  Every time I get the table or the countertops in the kitchen half empty they get filled up again--lol!

Allie doesn't think I am as boring on the days I am on the move off and on all day (or should I say all night long).

By Friday I got Grandpa's desk emptied!

Every drawer...

...and the hutch.

I don't remember if I showed you it has these boards that slide back and forth as you open the top to hold it open.

Was thinking...my dad was born in 1920 and he remembers his dad as always having that secretary desk.  I also remember it from when I was a kid.  I was fascinated by it and would beg Grandpa to open it to let me see the hutch with all the cubby holes and little drawers.  Kids were not allowed to touch his desk--ever.  Anyways, I was thinking it is probably somewhere around 90-100 years old.  It has been well loved.  Grandpa used his desk all the time...as you can tell.

By Saturday my desk was emptied!!

So now Leah can put an ad in Google Marketplace for mine.

Today I emptied the last shelf in the first bookcase.

And I have started shuffling things into the top shelf I emptied in the next bookcase--LOL!

Odd jobs come up...like cleaning nib holders and feathers.

I've been going through old workbooks from different spiritual type self-help books.  That was fun to peruse.  My basic path has not changed much at all.  And I think I've actually made some inner progress.  Funny how some of the things you think are the absolute worst possible events can have some of the biggest lessons that change you the most in such positive ways...in the long run.  Looking back, I wouldn't change a thing.  Every single day--good or bad--has brought me to today and who I am this day.  I'm good with that.  Very grateful for this life of mine.

Today I found out that Ian is sick.  Temp, threw up his dinner, etc.  Seems like every time they get together with family groups somebody gets sick.  :(  They saw both Dagan's dad & family and Leah's aunt & family over Thanksgiving.  I hope Ian feels better soon and that nobody else gets it.  They did have a good time, though.  :)

We've had warmer weather--in the 30s--so the snow has been melting away.  I watched Roadkill and Batiste S2 on PBS Passport--and am watching The Split on Hulu now.  I watch an episode, go clean and sort for a while, watch another episode, repeat--LOL!  That is how my week has gone since Wednesday.  The mess is always worse before it gets better...but I have made a lot of progress and I am very, very happy with that.  I hope to be able to show you even more progress by next Monday...but I also am not pushing myself...have done all this very slowly.  When one has been just plain miserable for over a week then getting back to the usual lousy is actually quite nice.  Everything is perspective, right?  ROFL!!  

I hope all in the US had a nice Thanksgiving.  I am really in a Christmas joy kind of mood this year.  So I guess I should put on some classic holiday music and start getting my Christmas cards ready, eh?  

Sending a little joy from Fargo!!  

Till next week.  :) :)