Just need to talk to my friends (209)

Hope everyone is having a relaxing Saturday.

JeriLynn - Such a sad situation, and you absolutely helped that family. It's so true that the "business of death" doesn't allow you to take the time to grieve, you have to do that later. It's always a rough time.

HB - my 13 year old (at the time) cousin came up to me during the reception and told me that my wedding reception was much better than the ones on General Hospital. High praise!!

Your mom's trip does sound like the stuff of family legends.

I'm also in the camp of "does own nails". I'm not sure that I've ever had a professional manicure done. Peggy always did French nails (toes and fingers) and I've always done bold colors: royal blue & purple, black, green, etc. The one I'm going to wear next week is "Kona Coast", it's a shiny blue/green.

Beth - We were looking through our phone cameras, that's how we knew there was an aurora out there. Bummer that there were so many clouds + light, but them's the breaks sometimes. I'll definitely check about the meteors. Thanks for the tip!

I got a great surprise today. One of my Burning Man friends who disappeared about ten years ago sent me an email wanting to reconnect. He's just reconnected with another member of our group. To be honest, none of us even thought he was still alive - he just disappeared completely. Turns out he had had some major health problems, but seems to have beaten them. I'm psyched. He's really a cool guy. One of his things (I wonder if it still is?) is Mars. Back in the day, he took a lot of the public NASA Mars data/photos, and stitched a bunch of the photos together. From that he was able to track the dust devils on Mars. Like the little flip books of old, these stitched photos showed the dust devils moving across the surface of Mars. His work was good enough that Sky & Telescope picked it up. Back then doing something like that was novel, now, with the rovers, we get much more info.

If it's hot where you, please be careful.

Good morning

Ron, what a beautiful family you have! So glad you are close to your son and family now. If I recall correctly, do you have a second son and where does he live?

Feel better, Ron.

Beth

Good morning

I'm not even going to comment about the heat other that to say ugh.

Ron I'm so glad that you've made the move. Your family is welcoming you, as they should. I love your 'special' days. It makes me happy, so I'm certain it really fills your heart.

Mani / pedi's aren't something I'd ever regularly done until DH's diagnosis. He's never been the best about smooth toenails, and well its not gotten better. I tried once and quickly realized I could pay someone to do this! He likes the attention at the nail salon and I figure if he's getting his nails done then I can have mine done also! I don't like any color on my fingernails though. I'm not sure why, but I just don't care for it. Love it on others, just not myself. Now my toes I love color, go figure.

DH had something very scary happen to him yesterday. I just knew we were headed to the hospital, but we didn't. I hope I didn't miss something obvious, I'm calling the neurologist in the morning. He was ok, getting ready to make himself some toast and his upper body started shaking. Uncontrolled shaking. Just from his waist up, his head wasn't shaking though. He could talk fine & walk fine. It scared him (and me) so I kept a level head. Pervious to the shaking he'd turned his head and his neck popped. I put him in a chair and rubbed his shoulders/neck, no pain anywhere. I tried several of the stroke checks with him and they were fine. It slowly lessoned, but wore him out. He wanted to sit in his chair and snooze. By now 20 minutes or so the shakes were slight tremble's. He sat down, had some tea and read/snoozed for an hour. When he got up he was fine. He wasn't trembling at all, now he was stiff from it though. I kept a very close eye on him all day, & he was his normal self. Except maybe more tired. This morning he's fine, said his shoulders are muscle sore but fine. In hind site I should have grabbed my phone and taken a video, but I didn't think of it. All I know is that it scared both of us and we'd prefer him to not do that again.

I'll be back later to check on everyone. Let's be safe.

There's no such thing as too many special days, Ron. And any day spent with the kids and grandkids is special.

The surprise lilies are in bloom here, a sure sign of late summer. And Lenovo is running radio ads for student specials on computers, a sure sign that fall is coming. I'm ready!

You've broken the code, congratulations! Now you can have midnight snacks again. Dim lights have their place, but the kitchen is certainly not the place.

Had the whole Missouri family with me Sunday evening for dinner.

Today I will be heading out to Springfield for acupuncture, hope it helps this pain. Wednesday back to Springfield for Oncology appointment. I'm finally catching up on some of the appointments I was already scheduled for in Shreveport, just three more to go.

Ron

overcast and 90 degrees predicted today with intermittent showers. So, we decided to take a “rest day” and go look at some lake properties. This is Lake Guntersville crossing on our way to Weiss Lake. Everyone be safe today.

good afternoon

Iris you’re not alone. That lightbulb thing is crazy. It should not be that hard to pick out lightbulb.

What a day!

My SIL (my brother's widow) called in tears last night about bedtime, having a panic attack and afraid she was about to die. Her daughter (my niece) has been staying home from work to be with her for two weeks and was going back to work today, and she was freaking out. I talked her down from the ledge and told her I'd come visit her today, and calmed her enough everyone could get some sleep. Then I spent most of the day in conversation with my SIL and, after a while, discovered that her other BIL (her sister's "very religious" husband) has filled her head with superstitious nonsense to the effect that God is punishing her for seeking medical treatment for her leg nerve pain. Whew!

My niece had told her the same things I told her, but apparently she needed to hear it from someone other than her "young" (nearly 50) daughter. My SIL thanked me for "being so kind" and apologized for burdening me when I lost my wife only two months ago. It's OK, it gave me something to do besides feel sorry for myself, but I do get tired of feeling like I'm the only one who can think. I'm not, my niece and my wife's sister are quite rational, but my son isn't and SIL has spent way too much time sitting alone being in pain and depressed.

On that note, I received a letter today from Hospice inviting me to join one of their grief support groups. There's a men's breakfast group that meets in a restaurant monthly and a monthly evening support group. I might try it once.

My next-door neighbor brought me a little bag of tomatoes from his garden a few minutes ago. He's a nice man, and knows I love tomatoes.

Pretty gloomy here this evening. The sky looks a lot like the sky in the picture JeriLynn posted. We had thunder last night and wind this afternoon, but no rain - yet. We could use some rain.

I'll probably turn in early this evening. Take care of yourselves!

Good morning all. Sunny and warm here today. It was clear overnight. The moon was exceptionally bright; when it rose above the trees the room seemed as if dawn was breaking. I was shocked to find it was just after 1 am. It's the Sturgeon Moon, I'm told.

Lorita— I have had a couple of instances where the site messes up one of my posts— usually when I attempt to edit a misspelled word for some reason. Sometimes I can post below but other times I am locked out of that thread until I reach out to tech support. It's frustrating.

It's funny you mention nail polish and typing. My mom's remaining sister has always had beautifully manicured nails and has always worked on keyboards. She favors a longish classic oval shape and has never had an issue which amazes me. The few times I've done a professional mani I've managed to chip it before I got home.

Gothic G— Better than a wedding on General Hospital? That's high praise. It's hard to top the red dress Lucy Coe wore to marry Alan Quartermain when he and Monica were on a break. Just saying.

I was doing some early Christmas shopping and came across a bat door knocker that reminded me of you. He's so cute.

Ron— I hope your appointments are going well. My niece is a strong proponent of acupuncture; I hope it's as helpful for you as it has been for her.

It's looks like you DIL held out for Olive Garden. She's gorgeous; is she the mother of the pretty granddaughter?

Iris— I'm glad you got your lighting figured out. My kitchen overhead light died during COVID. It has an integrated LED so I had to replace the entire thing and I didn't want someone in the house so I hauled out a desk lamp and cooked using that for over a year. It wasn't great.

I find I get the most assistance at one of my local, non-big box, hardware stores. The local Ace is staffed by old guys who will take the time to get you fixed up with exactly what you need. Maybe there's one near you.

Eaglemom— That must've been upsetting for you. I hope you get a call back soon with a reassuring explanation soon.

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PT for my wrist today. I'm hoping to graduate although I confess I wasn't as diligent in my movement exercises and I do have a little bit of a contracture in my forearm. I'll see the surgeon on Thursday which should be a formality. Tomorrow early I have an abdominal u/s to look at my spleen. It's fasting which is never fun. After, I'll help mom pack for her trip and take her to the liquor store to buy some pre-made cocktails and wine for balcony time.

DS and I did the Costco run yesterday. A case of soda for DH, 4 cases of flavored water for DS, TP, Kleenex, and grapes. All the staples, lol. I tend to spend less when DS comes along as he isn't big on browsing.

I hope all have a pleasant day.
HB