Just need to talk to my friends (208)

Good morning, Ron. I haven't gone to bed yet. 😄 I'm up for another hour - but I get to sleep late tomorrow morning.

Lorita— Cost depends on the extent of the damage and repairs. My friend's car sat idle during Covid lock downs, and the rats had done a lot of damage, so the entire cable harness was replaced. I recall it being about $3500 at the Toyota dealer.

I replaced the dashboard harness in my Honda a few years back and I recall that being about $1200 at an independent shop. I bought my car coming off a lease. The lessee had installed a court ordered breathalyzer and removed it before turning the car in. His mechanic botched the removal and restoration of the original ignition, and the car developed starting issues after I'd had it a year. Took the mechanic almost 2 days to troubleshoot it.

Mom's A/C is out. She didn't say or do anything on Sunday when she noticed it. She didn't say or do anything when I collected her to see the retinal specialist yesterday. No, she waited until the shop closed when I dropped her off. She didn't want to pay $350 for an emergency call, so they'll try to send someone today which means DS will have to meet the tech if they're able to pull it off. Otherwise, her maintenance is scheduled for tomorrow morning anyway. At least it won't be quite as hot as it's been today. FTR, this is not a new behavior for her; I've been scheduling my own dental appointments and making random business calls for her since I was 10. She hates making phone calls. She's OK answering or talking on the phone. But actually making a cold call. Nope. It's a genuine phobia. When dad was alive, there would be consequences for this behavior, so things did get done.

HB

good morning

hope things go well for you today Lorita

I found a good deal today. I went to the DXL Big & Tall men's store and discovered they are offering 20% off to customers who "trade in" decent used clothing they can donate to charity. I had three pairs of non-fitting jeans in the trunk that I meant to donate, so I carried them into the store and obtained a discount on the three items I wanted to buy. $31 saved and one less errand to run! 😎

Ate lunch at the Senior Center and talked to a man who used to work on the IBM 360 computer. I remember that model. Ours was a big as a cabin and lived in an air-conditioned room. It was so temperature sensitive that only a few people were allowed in the room at a time to prevent body heat from damaging the computer, and data were input via punch cards. That was in 1970. My phone, that lives in the pocket of my jeans, has many times the computing power of that dinosaur.

I'm going to wash the filler out of my new clothing. TTYL

My music for last night and today is now done. Last night was Death Guild - the music was good, and it was fun chatting with everyone in the chat program. I just finished my Tuesday afternoon DJ session - happy '80s music, beginning with Groovy Tuesday by The Smithereens.

The weather is perfect here. My phone tells me it's 81 degrees, and there's a small breeze. I am loving this!

My one shock occurred yesterday. I got an email from someone I dimly remember from high school - she let me know that our class reunion is coming up in October. It's a very large number. How can this be? I'm not upset at my vast age, just bewildered. 😄

Lorita - Not to worry about your comments, it's what a lot of us are thinking. In fact, it was one of the topics last night at Death Guild. All of us there have well-honed gallows humor skills to help get us through.

I hope your night pains were gone by the time you woke up this morning.

JeriLynn - I love that you and your DH's SIL could have a light conversation about such a dark topic.

HB - You know, my mom was kind of like that too - not wanting to make cold calls. I wouldn't call my mom's behavior a phobia because it didn't really go that far, but she was uncomfortable enough that she'd just suffer with some things. I wonder if part of it is a generational thing?

I hope your mom's AC gets fixed with minimal drama.

Carl - I remember hearing about those room-sized computers, but I never saw one. I got my first email address right around 1979 when I started college (it was for my work-study job). My boss was a computer person and explained all of that too me. My job was data entry, but not directly into a terminal. Each record needed a form to be filled out by me, using block letters only. Then at the end of the day all of those forms would get sent to the computer center on campus and would come back to us in the morning as data we could then see on our screens. Punch cards had just been phased out. Definitely a different time.

Judith, I hope you're on the mend. Thinking of you.

Good Morning

Headed to the kitchen to make that blackberry cobbler. Have a great day ahead.

Good morning to those on the porch.

Jerilynn— The daisies are so cheerful. I love your choice of shoes for shuffling off this mortal coil. I guess I never thought about it. My family tends to do direct cremation, so it's not a choice we need to sort out. Good thing, mom would probably turn it into a shopping excursion.

When my mom's nasty sister finally died, no arrangements had been made for burial clothing so my Aunt Pris "lent" her a dress. Pris still complains about this when listing grievances regarding this particular sister. Over time, in the retelling, said dress has become her favorite.

Lorita— I'm glad you heard from Judith and I hope you're feeling better.

Carl— I vaguely recall a behemoth on campus into which they'd feed punch cards we'd gather going from table to table to schedule classes when I started college. We'd load our selections into a tray and hope for the best. DS has no idea how much easier he has it.

I love those kinds of sales. DXL has some nice things, but I find them quite pricey. I often end up there for socks. DH is an extra tall with big feet; shopping for him is an adventure. Fortunately, he has zero interest in clothing beyond being warm. He's a very distinguished looking man so it irks me when he insists on looking like a bum.

Gothic G— Maybe that's why those people The Silent Generation. It's weird, she's great if someone calls her but she would never think to call them. Not even me or my nieces. My younger dad's brother used to call her to wish her a happy birthday every year; his birthday and anniversary are the next day. She was very close to him as a teenager as he lived next door and she used to have him for dinners and after/work school snacks daily until he married. He didn't call once dad died and she sucked on that like a sore tooth for a year until I finally snapped and asked if she called him. I swear I spend as much time explaining social reciprocity to her as I ever did my kid with autism. And these days, he's better at it.

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TL;DR: Mom's scan showed no evidence of amyloid uptake in the heart, so negative.

Yesterday was beyond stressful. I'd built extra time into travel to avoid that and we needed every minute of it. First there was a temporary work zone to remove a tree that has been leaning on wires for over a week, then the was a paving project between her house and the train station on a road that is closed to all but local traffic. The flagman was working a 3-way intersection and would not clear me to drive 100 yds into the station despite there being zero traffic. Dare I say he was being a jerk about it too.

Mom was stressing before we even left. Her cleaner, who communicates via text because mom doesn't understand her accent, switched days and was due to arrive at 8am. It was 9 and she wasn't there. I texted, she answered she'd be there soon so I explained the door would be open and a check for her on the table. At this point I noticed that mom's phone was at 40%. Ugh.

We made the train, but there were speed restrictions from signal issues until we got into the city which meant the train was 30 minutes late. We grabbed a cab at 30th Street Station and made it to the hospital. The weather was very hot and very humid. Mom struggles with this kind of weather because of both her COPD and her CHF, but we made it to the air-conditioned hospital with time to spare. The scheduler at the satellite office sent us to the wrong building, and then security sent us to the wrong radiology department, they told us where we were supposed to be and so we traipsed back through the soup to find the right place making it with 10 minutes to spare. They took us back immediately and administered the tracer. The young woman doing it couldn't have been lovelier.

We had 2 hours to kill before the scan, so we went to lunch in the cafeteria of the first building. FWIW, the food service within the Penn system is quite good. Mom enjoyed a lovely pasta bake with shrimp, fresh spinach and blistered grape tomatoes. I had a nice tuna salad and we hung out until it was time to head back. The scan itself took about 40 minutes and was quite interesting. She said the report would be read by the end of the day and that the report would be in the chart by this morning. Then we were on our way.

This is where things got ugly. Given the possibility of waiting up to an hour for a train home, I elected to take an Uber to Jefferson Station rather than the nearer 30th Street or Suburban where the A/C is not reliably effective. The Uber driver kept trying to take me to 30th Street and was reluctant to take no for an answer, this happened again as we got near Suburban. Ugh. I finally said I wanted to go to the Ulta there and she took us. I think she wanted to avoid center city despite it being only a 3-mile trip. We had a 40-minute wait for the train but it was nice and cool. Alas, 30 minutes into the wait that train was cancelled. As we were nearing rush hour, there was only a 40-minute wait for the next one. They cancelled that one while we were on the platform. FTR, mom insisted she didn't need me to go with her. I can only imagine her trying to troubleshoot this debacle with poor vision, no stamina and a dead phone.

I made arrangements for DS to drive to the station and swap cars (the Miata is a 2-seater) and then drive to the terminus of another line which we'd take. As it involved trains, he was all-in. I no sooner did that than the cancelled train turned up. I was able to get a hold of DS and we started home. The speed restrictions had spread to the entire line, so the trip took almost 2 hours. Some young man asked to borrow my phone as his had died and he was going to be late to pick up his kids. They didn't answer, so he asked to text them. Just as we were getting ready to leave, I got a text from his wife telling him to collect them at the grandparents' house that started with the line "if you're still with my husband…" They might've been having a worse day than me.

Meanwhile, my bestie was trying to call as her DD had a prenatal visit for high BP. It's not dangerously high but it means the twins are likely being delivered in the next 2 weeks rather than in 3. The docs said they didn't think it was pre-eclampsia but bestie is out of her mind with worry and I'm the one she turns to for that sort of thing. I finally got to call her on my drive home.

The test results beat me home which was nice. She's not going to die from this. I wouldn't rule out matricide.

HB

Cities are wonderful for restaurants and museums, not so much when the elderly and infirm need to get around. My town is bad enough. We defunded our police, because we don't like to pay taxes, so US 65 is pretty much a racetrack. Both northbound lanes were closed this morning due to a collision, probably caused by people driving 150% of the speed limit and changing lanes every hundred yards. I was going south, so it didn't delay me, but I took the slow route through the middle of town on my return trip to avoid the traffic jam.

You're a good daughter, HB. I wish I had someone like you to take care of me in my old age.

It's another hot, bright day here in SW MO. If I get anything done, it will be in the shade. Have a nice day.

Carl— I-95 is why I took the train. If it's not construction delays, it's an out-of-control racetrack. PA state troopers police the road "lightly" beyond the city limits. I can't recall the last time I saw someone pulled over north of the city to the NJ border. Philadelphia highway patrol are supposed to cover the part in the city; they're deeply undermanned and struggling to keep city police, prisons and transit police covered. They reinstated a rule that police and firefights be city residents which restricts their hiring pool.

Years ago, I was in an 11-car pileup on I-95 going 65. I could see the set-up of a potential issue from a mile out (some missed their exit and was trying to cross over) and moved to the far-left land, but as it happened the accident moved across the 5 lanes and into my path of travel. I was in an '83 Honda Civic and walked away with only a bruise on my knee.

HB

HB, so glad your mother does not have cardiac amyloidosis.

JeriLynn, gorgeous photos! You live in a beautiful place!

Today I worked in the garden, mowed and went to the Farmer's Market. I bought a limeade and some kohlrabi; also bought a walking taco, a drink and an ice cream sandwich for my granddaughter. It is warm, but if one stayed in shade and caught a breeze, not too bad. 84 degrees.

Hi to Carl, Iris, Lorita, Sasue, Eagle, Mint, GG, Judith, Marie and Caro… and anyone else I forgot to mention.

Yesterday

And Today - I love the sunrise

Y’all have a blessed day ❤️