![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
2020--So Far
Jan. 4th, 2020 08:49 pmI spent New Year's Eve with my cats. I watched Meet John Doe because I had recorded it on DVR and was just in the mood for an old movie. I had two small bottles of sparkling wine, but I didn't feel like drinking anything. I had planned to stay up till midnight, but I was tired and went to bed at 11 pm.
On New Year's Day, I didn't feel like doing anything or going anywhere, but my aunt called and wanted me to go with her to Faribault to meet her first time pregnant granddaughter for lunch. Faribault is about a 45 minute drive from here, and my aunt has been suffering from a bad back and a neck so painful that she cannot turn her head without extreme pain. She just didn't feel comfortable driving that far without a second pair of eyes in the car to help her watch for traffic. So, though I didn't feel like going anywhere, I agreed to accompany her.
The roads were good. We went to the sports bar Hailie had chosen for lunch--I was not impressed by its run down kind of grungy appearance and how LOUD it was in there, but the food was good. I had a fish and chips basket but instead of fries, I got onion rings. It was served with coleslaw that tasted like it had been made with horseradish, which I found strange. The fish and onion rings were good though.
Hailie had brought her sister Emily with her, and we had a nice chat while we ate. Hailie is a very intelligent and highly motivated young woman--a great role model for her other sisters and her nieces and nephews. You are guaranteed an intelligent conversation when you are with her.
She asked about everyone's new year's resolutions. Hers was to successfully give birth to her daughter and work on paying off her college and law school debt. Lily's was to decide about selling her trailer in Texas; Emily had a good one, but I don't remember what it was. I think it was either to work on her debt or work on her house. Mine was to pay off my medical bills. I am doing well with those. I have less than $2,000 left to pay off. The total cost for all my medical crap this year was $643,000+. Insurance paid for most of it. My share was listed as in excess of $30,000, but some of that had to be forgiven as I have only paid about $10,000 out of my pocket. I feel very proud that I have almost paid it all off already. I will have it paid in full by April if nothing terrifying comes along. I had to take my Stewie to the vet as he suddenly got very thin and scruffy looking. That cost me almost $500. But I told the vet I didn't care what it cost. I need my baby to be well. I had to pay around $600 for my six months of car insurance a few days ago. My car insurance has to be paid in January and July. So, around a third of my income for January is already gone on just the vet bill and the car insurance. I have to pay at least $300 on the medical bill, but I usually pay closer to $500 each month as I want it done as soon as possible.
When we got back from Faribault, I went to Lily's house and did the last bits on her "Trip to Israel" scrapbook that I have been working on since she got back from it in September. All I had left to do was make an insert for the spine of the three ring notebooks we put the scrapbook in--it took two--that said "Trip to Israel Volume 1" and "Trip to Israel Volume 2." Then I made covers for each of the two notebooks to insert in the fronts. I did a lot of research on the places she saw and wrote up a lot of stuff on each location she visited. She saw so much in such a short time that she remembered almost nothing about any of it. I had to search through the internet for hours, looking for pictures that matched her pictures so I could figure out what they were. I found everything except for 4-5 pictures that I couldn't locate at all. I had her itinerary and her pictures were in dated folders from her camera, so I knew what the possibilities were, which made it easier. She plans to read the whole thing once she is back in Texas. She is also going to share it with the people in her Texas church which is where her tour group came from. I am hoping that one of them will know what those pictures are of. Since the scrapbook is in page protectors in three ring binders, I will be able to insert them easily where they belong if anyone can tell her what they are.
I worked very hard on that book--after my horrific hospital experience, I didn't think I would be able to complete it before she went to Texas, but I pushed myself and did it. I am pretty proud of how it turned out.
After we finished working on the scrapbook, we just looked at a lot of her pictures, shared stories about the good old days, and laughed. My cousin Rhonda, her daughter, has had every hair style known to mankind throughout her life, so I took pictures of the pictures on the computer screen and texted them to her. (Before he died, my uncle scanned every single picture from their entire lives into his computer). I enjoyed looking at all of those old pictures--especially the ones from my childhood. I printed off four of them which were so cute of me and my siblings and cousins when we were pretty young--around 8 or 9 for me, I think.
On the second day of the new year, I stayed home, did laundry, and held my cats. I cleaned the litterboxes, did some tidying up around the house, and sorted through a bunch of paper stuff, recycling everything that I could. I watched some stuff off the DVR--trying to clear that out a bit. For the first time since I returned home from the hospital, I carried a small bag of garbage outside to the garbage bin. Such a small thing, but it made me feel strong and self-sufficient for a change instead of weak and helpless.
On the third day of the new year, I spent another day with my aunt. After looking at all her pictures, I thought I should back all of them up on a disk, just in case something happened to my uncle's computer. It would be a shame if all those pictures were lost. I have been working on typing up my aunt's recipes for over a year. They are little scraps of paper, recipes torn from magazines and newspapers, and old stained recipe cards that are barely legible, I have been typing them all up so they are neat and readable and saving them in files on the computer. I backed them all up too. I printed off a couple of recipes that sounded really good to me as well.
I do that for my recipes and put them in page protectors in 3-ring notebooks. Eventually I hope to do the same or hers. This is going to be a huge project as she has sooooo many of them! Fortunately, I enjoy typing and am a fast typist.
Lily had been expecting her granddaughter Randi and Randi's boyfriend Neil to arrive around 7 pm. Somewhere between 5:30 and 6 pm, Randi called and said they were not coming that night--but they'd be there by 10 am. Lily was very disappointed as she had hoped they'd get there early enough to pack the rest of the stuff she was taking to Texas in the car and help her set up the cat's food, water, and litterbox so it wouldn't roll around in the car.
She had intended to get a pizza for their supper at the local Casey's, so I offered to pay for it if she went to get it. It had been snowing most of the afternoon and evening, so she was a little worried about the road being slippery, but it was fine. We got a large pizza that was half mushroom and black olives (for me as I don't like meat on pizza) and half sausage, pepperoni, and green olives (for her, as she does like meat on her pizza). We both enjoyed our own halves. And there were three pieces left over on each half for tomorrow!
She took me home, and I put away the pizza and other stuff she sent home with me--some cookies and a couple pieces of a pumpkin layer cake that she had planned to feed Randi and Neil. I spent the rest of the night watching some TV and holding my fur babies. She called me later and told me that she had managed to haul all the heavy totes and things out to the car and load them up. I was irritated that she did this--what if she had fallen, carrying those heavy things out to the car? She could have knocked herself out and lain on the cement floor all night before someone found her. She could have died.
But she survived, so all is well.
Today, Stewie woke me up at 8 am. I would have preferred to sleep a little longer, but he wanted some soft food and ate some of it after I got up and put it down for him, so it was worth it. He took both of his medications like a champ--never struggled a bit. I tidied up the kitchen a bit, made myself a couple of over-easy eggs and toast for breakfast as I am feeling like I don't get enough protein, did the dishes, and put some stuff in recycling.
I opened the garage door as Lily had told me last night that she was going to bring a bunch of stuff she wanted to clean out of her fridge over--stuff she didn't want to take to Texas but that wouldn't be good in the fridge when she came home in the spring. She arrived just as I was finishing up the dishes. She brought me three bags full of stuff--what was left of her egg nog, two cartons of whipping cream, a whole carton of eggs, a single hamburger bun (LOL), an ice cream bucket half full of the refrigerator pickles she had made in October (they are delicious), a bag of carrots, a ziplock bag of celery sticks, cheese sticks, a chunk of summer sausage, a bag of mozzarella cheese, some small oranges, and some other random things.
She cried when I hugged her and told her I loved her and said she would miss me. I told her we could talk on the phone every day. She called me later and said that they had finally gotten on the road at 11:45 when they finally got there. She called me several hours later when they stopped in Missouri for a potty break. I don't know if they planned to drive all night or stop at a hotel.
I ate my left over pizza at about 3:30 pm. It was a late lunch, but I had eaten a large breakfast so I wasn't that hungry. I am just having a small bottle of Diet Coke for supper. Not hungry at all.
I paid my Verizon bill and my city water/sewer bills this afternoon and went through more paper stuff. I have another bag of recycling going. I have more paper stuff to look through, but I wanted to write up a summary of my "year" so far.
Stewie has required quite a bit of cuddling and holding today. I just set my stuff aside and hold him as long as he wants. I am hoping he will make a full recovery from whatever is wrong with him, but who knows?
That's all I have to say for now. I'm sure I forgot some major items, but it doesn't matter in the great scheme of things.
Oh--I have decided not to keep my appointment with the cardiologist. After what I went through in the hospital after the kidney surgery, I just don't trust any of them. Especially not to stop my heart and restart it again.
On New Year's Day, I didn't feel like doing anything or going anywhere, but my aunt called and wanted me to go with her to Faribault to meet her first time pregnant granddaughter for lunch. Faribault is about a 45 minute drive from here, and my aunt has been suffering from a bad back and a neck so painful that she cannot turn her head without extreme pain. She just didn't feel comfortable driving that far without a second pair of eyes in the car to help her watch for traffic. So, though I didn't feel like going anywhere, I agreed to accompany her.
The roads were good. We went to the sports bar Hailie had chosen for lunch--I was not impressed by its run down kind of grungy appearance and how LOUD it was in there, but the food was good. I had a fish and chips basket but instead of fries, I got onion rings. It was served with coleslaw that tasted like it had been made with horseradish, which I found strange. The fish and onion rings were good though.
Hailie had brought her sister Emily with her, and we had a nice chat while we ate. Hailie is a very intelligent and highly motivated young woman--a great role model for her other sisters and her nieces and nephews. You are guaranteed an intelligent conversation when you are with her.
She asked about everyone's new year's resolutions. Hers was to successfully give birth to her daughter and work on paying off her college and law school debt. Lily's was to decide about selling her trailer in Texas; Emily had a good one, but I don't remember what it was. I think it was either to work on her debt or work on her house. Mine was to pay off my medical bills. I am doing well with those. I have less than $2,000 left to pay off. The total cost for all my medical crap this year was $643,000+. Insurance paid for most of it. My share was listed as in excess of $30,000, but some of that had to be forgiven as I have only paid about $10,000 out of my pocket. I feel very proud that I have almost paid it all off already. I will have it paid in full by April if nothing terrifying comes along. I had to take my Stewie to the vet as he suddenly got very thin and scruffy looking. That cost me almost $500. But I told the vet I didn't care what it cost. I need my baby to be well. I had to pay around $600 for my six months of car insurance a few days ago. My car insurance has to be paid in January and July. So, around a third of my income for January is already gone on just the vet bill and the car insurance. I have to pay at least $300 on the medical bill, but I usually pay closer to $500 each month as I want it done as soon as possible.
When we got back from Faribault, I went to Lily's house and did the last bits on her "Trip to Israel" scrapbook that I have been working on since she got back from it in September. All I had left to do was make an insert for the spine of the three ring notebooks we put the scrapbook in--it took two--that said "Trip to Israel Volume 1" and "Trip to Israel Volume 2." Then I made covers for each of the two notebooks to insert in the fronts. I did a lot of research on the places she saw and wrote up a lot of stuff on each location she visited. She saw so much in such a short time that she remembered almost nothing about any of it. I had to search through the internet for hours, looking for pictures that matched her pictures so I could figure out what they were. I found everything except for 4-5 pictures that I couldn't locate at all. I had her itinerary and her pictures were in dated folders from her camera, so I knew what the possibilities were, which made it easier. She plans to read the whole thing once she is back in Texas. She is also going to share it with the people in her Texas church which is where her tour group came from. I am hoping that one of them will know what those pictures are of. Since the scrapbook is in page protectors in three ring binders, I will be able to insert them easily where they belong if anyone can tell her what they are.
I worked very hard on that book--after my horrific hospital experience, I didn't think I would be able to complete it before she went to Texas, but I pushed myself and did it. I am pretty proud of how it turned out.
After we finished working on the scrapbook, we just looked at a lot of her pictures, shared stories about the good old days, and laughed. My cousin Rhonda, her daughter, has had every hair style known to mankind throughout her life, so I took pictures of the pictures on the computer screen and texted them to her. (Before he died, my uncle scanned every single picture from their entire lives into his computer). I enjoyed looking at all of those old pictures--especially the ones from my childhood. I printed off four of them which were so cute of me and my siblings and cousins when we were pretty young--around 8 or 9 for me, I think.
On the second day of the new year, I stayed home, did laundry, and held my cats. I cleaned the litterboxes, did some tidying up around the house, and sorted through a bunch of paper stuff, recycling everything that I could. I watched some stuff off the DVR--trying to clear that out a bit. For the first time since I returned home from the hospital, I carried a small bag of garbage outside to the garbage bin. Such a small thing, but it made me feel strong and self-sufficient for a change instead of weak and helpless.
On the third day of the new year, I spent another day with my aunt. After looking at all her pictures, I thought I should back all of them up on a disk, just in case something happened to my uncle's computer. It would be a shame if all those pictures were lost. I have been working on typing up my aunt's recipes for over a year. They are little scraps of paper, recipes torn from magazines and newspapers, and old stained recipe cards that are barely legible, I have been typing them all up so they are neat and readable and saving them in files on the computer. I backed them all up too. I printed off a couple of recipes that sounded really good to me as well.
I do that for my recipes and put them in page protectors in 3-ring notebooks. Eventually I hope to do the same or hers. This is going to be a huge project as she has sooooo many of them! Fortunately, I enjoy typing and am a fast typist.
Lily had been expecting her granddaughter Randi and Randi's boyfriend Neil to arrive around 7 pm. Somewhere between 5:30 and 6 pm, Randi called and said they were not coming that night--but they'd be there by 10 am. Lily was very disappointed as she had hoped they'd get there early enough to pack the rest of the stuff she was taking to Texas in the car and help her set up the cat's food, water, and litterbox so it wouldn't roll around in the car.
She had intended to get a pizza for their supper at the local Casey's, so I offered to pay for it if she went to get it. It had been snowing most of the afternoon and evening, so she was a little worried about the road being slippery, but it was fine. We got a large pizza that was half mushroom and black olives (for me as I don't like meat on pizza) and half sausage, pepperoni, and green olives (for her, as she does like meat on her pizza). We both enjoyed our own halves. And there were three pieces left over on each half for tomorrow!
She took me home, and I put away the pizza and other stuff she sent home with me--some cookies and a couple pieces of a pumpkin layer cake that she had planned to feed Randi and Neil. I spent the rest of the night watching some TV and holding my fur babies. She called me later and told me that she had managed to haul all the heavy totes and things out to the car and load them up. I was irritated that she did this--what if she had fallen, carrying those heavy things out to the car? She could have knocked herself out and lain on the cement floor all night before someone found her. She could have died.
But she survived, so all is well.
Today, Stewie woke me up at 8 am. I would have preferred to sleep a little longer, but he wanted some soft food and ate some of it after I got up and put it down for him, so it was worth it. He took both of his medications like a champ--never struggled a bit. I tidied up the kitchen a bit, made myself a couple of over-easy eggs and toast for breakfast as I am feeling like I don't get enough protein, did the dishes, and put some stuff in recycling.
I opened the garage door as Lily had told me last night that she was going to bring a bunch of stuff she wanted to clean out of her fridge over--stuff she didn't want to take to Texas but that wouldn't be good in the fridge when she came home in the spring. She arrived just as I was finishing up the dishes. She brought me three bags full of stuff--what was left of her egg nog, two cartons of whipping cream, a whole carton of eggs, a single hamburger bun (LOL), an ice cream bucket half full of the refrigerator pickles she had made in October (they are delicious), a bag of carrots, a ziplock bag of celery sticks, cheese sticks, a chunk of summer sausage, a bag of mozzarella cheese, some small oranges, and some other random things.
She cried when I hugged her and told her I loved her and said she would miss me. I told her we could talk on the phone every day. She called me later and said that they had finally gotten on the road at 11:45 when they finally got there. She called me several hours later when they stopped in Missouri for a potty break. I don't know if they planned to drive all night or stop at a hotel.
I ate my left over pizza at about 3:30 pm. It was a late lunch, but I had eaten a large breakfast so I wasn't that hungry. I am just having a small bottle of Diet Coke for supper. Not hungry at all.
I paid my Verizon bill and my city water/sewer bills this afternoon and went through more paper stuff. I have another bag of recycling going. I have more paper stuff to look through, but I wanted to write up a summary of my "year" so far.
Stewie has required quite a bit of cuddling and holding today. I just set my stuff aside and hold him as long as he wants. I am hoping he will make a full recovery from whatever is wrong with him, but who knows?
That's all I have to say for now. I'm sure I forgot some major items, but it doesn't matter in the great scheme of things.
Oh--I have decided not to keep my appointment with the cardiologist. After what I went through in the hospital after the kidney surgery, I just don't trust any of them. Especially not to stop my heart and restart it again.
