Election Ads

Somethin' happening here - 

I was in line at the deli counter waiting to get served. A woman behind me tapped my shoulder and asked me who colors my hair at what salon?
My color is courtesty of God I tell her, as I do everyone. 

What's with everyone thinking I paid to go gray? 

I tell her that by the age of 66 I have no intentions of dying my hair anymore. She asked, "When do you turn 66?" 

Now I am going to admit my first thought was, "Are you crazy, I just said it." But I did not thankfully say that.

Instead I responded with a chuckle and said, "Last March is when I turned 66" 

She made a fuss and said I looked at best 56. (LIAR.)

I told her I was poor and could not pay her for that nice comment. She just laughed.

(I look 66 people!)

She then asked if she could take a photo to show her sytlist how she wants it white around the face but not the whole head.  

Geez lady, I don't even like to have my picture taken by my husband. 

I say okay and put on my sunglasses. She laughs and says that is probably a good idea to make this private. 

I have to say while that is really nice to be complimented, I have never had anyone come up to me to ask about my hair color until I went natural during lockdown. When it was brown but I kept the white around my face I got asked a lot about what color they used to get the white in the front. But never once has anyone asked and I've been coloring my hair since sun-in in the 70s. Then in the 70s henna was all the rage. Then highlights. Then full on colors. I've been everything but blonde. But now I'm done.  

I do find this funny that this happens so often to me now that I have gray hair. You'd think that pretty chestnut would have been a winner. 

Apparently not.

In other news - 

I moved here from DC and for the love of God the politcal ads in DC were far less offensive, far less complete utter bullshit and far less mean spirited. 

Think about that for a minute - I.came.here.from.DC. 

Never in a million years did we think it'd be so damn ugly here.

In fact we thought it would be far less ugly here. 

Now because we need to vote we must learn who is running in our new state and county.

Each political commerical we have no idea what party this is. 

We listen and learn.

We thought that would be a good thing not knowingn so we can be unbiases. We can just hear what they have to say and then do our own homeowork on said individual voting record etc. We actually thought this would be a good thing.

We found there were 2 distint type ads, only 2. -

1. LOUD, filled with fear, spewing things as a negative when both of us are thinking it's not a negative, mean spirited and ugly and always berates with ugliness towards their opponents whether true or not.

2. normal tone, no fear-filled agenda, telling you how they will vote, how they have voted and what things mean to them on several levels. NEVER mentioning an opponant. 

We would write down these names.

It has become quite clear who is what party. Isn't that damn sad?

Number 1 is clear and utter bullshit. We wrote some things they said and then did our research and found it was all lies.

Number 2 told us things that after we researched we found them to be true.But some things that we felt were important were left out a few times.

One of our favorite Number 1 fear based ads was that they were going to hire thousands of IRS agents to take your money. Not because they have needed more people in the IRS dept for a few years because they are overwhelmed.Or because it has been stated that this would get you your refund faster. Oh no, this was ONLY so they can come to your home to take your money from you. They even tell you not to open your door to the IRS.

I mean that's what the IRS does daily right, knocks on doors? No shit we even recorded this ad to show someone because we couldn't believe they could out and out lies like this. But the dumb asses here apparently believe this to be true. It's laughable and damn sad.

So we've made our decisions.

We do laugh each time we see the commerical for this one woman. 

They say her name and tell you how she beats her children, they read excerpts from the police report. How she tried to run over an ex husband and how her current husband got a restsraining order. I mean c'mon this has to be fake right? 

Not one ad have we seen in the last 3 months have been from her disputing these claims or an ad saying something good she's done. 

Not one ad. I guess she figures she can't fight that. It made us laugh. 

Of course she belongs in group 1.  We have begun to figure them out now from the ads. We even looked to see if this shit was true. Sure enough she was arrested for a couple of those things. She blamed it on bad husband behavior and being able to disipline her children, you know like all parents do - punching them in the belly AND face to require hospital care.  

If not so sad you'd have to laugh at her.

All Rick and I know is that we can't wait to vote so we don't have to see these damn commercials anymore!

 

Appointments Canceled

I had an appointment today at 1pm. 

As I am typing this it is 12:59PM.  

She just text to say something came up and to reschedule. I get that happens. I really do but honestly, we have moved mountains and rearranged dr. appointments because this is what worked for her. 

We got the text at 12:30pm and we looked at each other and said, well that messed up the day. Then Rick suggested, how about naked Thursday?  

Not again funny boy.

This appointment was to be a zoom. So I did my hair and makeup. 

Silly I know. I look decent from the neck up. How did we all live before zoom?

This morning Rick told me he was going to drop off the bourbon bowl to the people where they gave him this wood. He asked if I wanted to go along. Sure!  It's a large commercial building, a pretty nondescript building actually.

It is owned by a company called Barn Side of a Broad.  

They are a local wood supplier. 

They specialize in barn wood and milling services. More on them later.

A man who rents workshop space at Barn Side of a Broad has been working with Rick for a couple of months. Rick made a charcuterie board that will be given as a door prize for this town's library event in Vermont. 

The woman who commissioned this wanted it to be like water as well as American Walnut. 

She wanted the name of the area engraved on it in a special font. 

Rick does not have a C & C machine (engraves) so he goes to this man. The man downloaded the font into the C & C machine and viola it was done.  On that day he got the board engraved he gave Rick two oak hunks of wood that he had laying around. 

Rick showed the Vermont woman two others that he felt were far more beautiful but this one to her looked like water and wanted it. Rick packed it up and threw in his tootsie rolls and off it goes. For a mere $61.00 in shipping. Geez!!

Rick pays for shipping normally but he needs to rethink that. 

First of all most have been local. 

But Vermont was not a cheap shipping cost. Wood is heavy.

It was $160 for his time/labor, the cost of supplies to make it, and $61 went to shipping.  Oops.

Hard lesson learned. I suggest they pay for shipping. We give them the option of 3 days or ground service or something like that. We now have to figure out this situation.

When Rick brought the free wood back to his shop he began to work with the wood and make a bowl. 

Rick began to turn it and he got such a smell of bourbon. He wondered if these were some type of bourbon barrels. I smelled it too. It was strong. 

But there were also some burnt areas on the wood. He asked the guy if it had been in a fire. He insisted it had not. So today he walked in with the bowl, filled with Halloween candy. The man was blown away, he then saw the burn marks and said, man, I didn't think this had been in a fire but you're right it had to be. And the fact that it was so very hard to turn, it was very dry so putting two and two together Rick assumed a fire, and this time he agreed. 

One of the women walked by and he told her to come over he explained what wood blocks he gave Rick and she said, "And you made THAT out of THOSE?  Oooh, there's candy!"  Who cared about anything after she saw all the chocolate.  After that, it's all they talked about. 

Women from all over the building came over to see the candy bowl. LOL. 

Rick said he has never seen that many there any time he's been there. When he walked out two yelled, "Bye Candy Man, come back anytime!"

Rick made me laugh when he said, "Remember when I could just flirt and women would come around? Now I need candy"  Oh my goodness that made us laugh.

My physical therapist was telling me how difficult it was to find a charcuterie board for this wedding. He is sharing all this as he is rubbing my ankle and foot so I will lay on this table as listen as long as he likes!

He has no idea my husband makes them mind you. He told me about this woman who told him to buy the board and then she'd cut it and add epoxy. He said he didn't because he knows that isn't how to do it. He was frustrated. I told him I have something to show him when I get off the table. So I show him the 3 that Rick has in the shop he is working on. All 3 are in the drying stage (3 days per) He went crazy and said that was what he was looking for. The following week I brought 2 of them inside. He took photos and sent them to his wife at work. His wife bought one and his wife's co-worker bought the other before I left PT. So that is how Rick is getting business. Right now not making more than keeping him in supplies but hopefully, he will make some money someday.

Still no website and still no photos because they were lost on the computer. We will get that back. "they" say. "I" hope!

I swear I wish I had had children just for the grandkids that could be helping me with all the computer issues.

Speaking of PT....I am done! My ankle feels great. Sure I still have some pain from time to time if I overdo things but it's gotten so much better that I don't even think about it anymore. To recap - no drugs and no bad ankle. YIPEE. Life is on the upswing. 

Now, that Powerball win of $800million would be okay to round it all off. 

Just sayin'

Ghosts vs Goats

Rick tells me to rewind to watch the man discuss his story of goats. Rick leaves the room to use the bathroom. I watch.

The story is funny, each room of this story something is going on so I'm watching and listening. The story is over. 
Cute, but no goats.
Rick returns to the room and I say that was a long story but he never even mentioned a goat Rick. 
Rick whipped around and said goats? 
Yes, you said he had a funny story about goats. 

Well Rick is laughing so hard he can't speak. He is taking his glasses off to wipe his eyes. I ask, what is so funny? Did I miss it?
Oh that line made him howl all the more. Pointing to me but can't speak.
Finally he calms down and spells G.H.O.S.T.S.
Oh my God, ghosts!
Here I'm waIting for a fucking goat to appear in this story. 

We both are laughing so hard now we have tears falling. But I don’t know why I'm laughing- because I'm laughing at myself. 
Rick has decided that a hearing aid would ruin all his fun so I'm going to continue on my deaf journey. Besides it's a marriage saver, we belly laugh every day. 
Laughing at me, but...

Not Fun Appointments

I told you all how much I loved the show Bad Sisters.

Well, it was driving Rick and me crazy that you know at the very beginning that this man will die. It's not a secret you find out in episode 5. No, you know it immediately. But you don't know how or when. Oh, you learn why. That is the problem.  He is vile.

We felt we'd been teased and tormented enough. 

We wanted this guy dead. Dispecible human being.

Each week one more episode drops to watch and the son of a bitch was still breathing.

We decided as I shared here, that we were not going to watch another episode until they were all completed. I knew there were 10 episodes so by episode 7 we stopped watching. 

I do not understand the whole droppping 1 episode a week. If I wanted that I wouldn't be on a streaming service I'd watch NBC. Geez. 

Can you imagine going to a movie and then they stop the movie and they tell you to come back next week. NOooooooo...

Anyhoo, we went back and watched from episode 7 to the bitter end and we cheered. This was such a good show. Dark and Funny. My favorite. 

As I have said as well here, Sharon Horgan writes shows I love. 

She is so very funny, dark, and twisted. She is Irish and it shows in all of the most excellent of ways. 

Now, this week I have a very busy week coming up. None of these things that are going to keep me busy is anything I wish to do. So that makes for a fun week. Dentist, mammogram, medicare advisor etc.  See? Nothing fun.

This week a new show called The Good Nurse is going to be streaming on Netflix. It's in theaters right now. I don't do movie theaters anymore so I will wait until Wednesday when I can watch it at home with my popcorn. I assume since it was in theaters it will be streaming. If not, we will not watch until we can stream it!

This is a true story about a nurse who killed hundreds of people in several states and could keep getting jobs. They believe he may be the serial killer who killed the most people. He admitted to killing 40 patients. They believe there to be more. 

I like Jessica Chastain. She plays the nurse who helped get him caught. 

It looks like a good thriller even though I know the outcome. It has gotten rave reviews so here's to having some TV that isn't baseball this week.

Now off to one of those damn appointments.

Betty

 We headed off to Duke.  Rick always has to drive me because I get my eye dilated and can't see shit to drive home.  I honestly feel like a child that he must drive me, he keeps telling me he doesn't mind. 

I am never there for less than 3 hrs. So that makes me feel bad for him.

I registered and got seated in the waiting room by the doctor's rooms.

I am then taken to a room where I have to read an eye chart, have my eyes dilated, and numbed, then they took the pressure of my eyes.  

That is all fun, but the real fun will begin in a few minutes. 

Then I head down to a room for all these photographs. 

They held my head this time and they took lightning photos of my eye. 

I mean, it's like lightning it's so damn bright and it's fast and you can't blink. At one point she held my eyelid up. It's hard for me as my eyes are tearing. The tech was nice and said she prefers to just hold the eye for people and most don't like it but you've been cooperative. That made me laugh as if I had a choice. She just said, 'close your eyes" and when I did she put her very cold fingers on my eyelid and opened it. 

Besides, I prefer her holding it so I can't blink, just tear. Oh, do I tear.

I then head to another room with a different machine and have more light shown in my eyes. The contraptions have me put my one eye in a weird position and then have to move my eye around for these photos. It's so odd but let us not forget, that bright light in my eyes.  It makes the glaucoma test seem like a small tiny light in the distance in comparison.

Both eyes this time. I guess for comparison or the tech was a sadistic SOB. She was very very nice I joke. This tech told me when I asked about doing my good eye that this was to be sure it hasn't spread to this eye. Yikes. 

I conveniently always forget about that tidbit. 

Then I am taken back to the room to talk to the Doctor after all this.

During this long walk through Duke hallways, she tells me she loves my haircut. Did I always have short hair? I want to cut mine she tells me but I've been afraid. Her hair was to her shoulders. I suggested doing a little at a time. She asked if I did. I said nope. first time I went short was after a break up. Stereotypical right? I had shoulder length hair and it was the 80s. you know big hair. I walked in and said shave the one side and leave it long on the rest. I mean, I went nuts. she laughed and said she could never be that brave.  She dyes her hair salt and pepper. She asked who does mine. I told her God or Mother Nature whomever you believe in. She laughed and said I was lucky. Hmmm, not my thoughts but I'm happy everyone else likes it. And now we're at the door to the doctors room and she made me forget for a few minutes why I was there. Then I felt the familiar jump in my belly. 

I am a bit stressed.

He bounces in. He looks skinnier than ever. I want to feed this man. 

Even my husband said this so it wasn't just Peg who has a need to feed as Rick loves to say.

The doctor is so full of energy...and young.  

He comes in and says, "Good Afternoon Peggy, how's Betty treating you?"  

I chucked and said, "I'm hoping you can tell me"

He pulls up his computer and says, "let's find out"

He begins to pepper me with questions while looking at all the pictures.  I can see them too. I see the difference but I am not sure what I am looking at. But the big blobs sitting on what he points out is my retina and the nerves are far smaller. Wow. 

For this visit, I asked Rick to come into the room with me so if I had to go over procedures and/or different therapies I wanted him in the room. 

1. because he always asks me questions and there is always 1 I can't answer.

2. If I forget something or if I have to pick 1 out of 4 horrible choices I kind of like him to help me as silly and 1950s as that sounds. He can walk me through this and as we talk I can then clearly see what I need to do. Not that I want him to tell me what to do. Hell, that is never the choice I pick, as he'd tell you.  I just need to bounce it off someone other than this doctor who wants me to do things I don't wish to do.

So Doctor S shows me the new pictures and we compare them to the other pictures. It has shrunk more since the last time I was there. 

Now that shows you the chemo is still working he says (oh you don't have to tell me it's still in my system!) 

After we review the photos there are questions and answers.

He says, "So you are really sure you don't wish to do chemo again?"

I told him I was POSITIVE if there are other options.

He then pulled up my eye test. He was impressed. It went to 20/25. 

That is so good out of an eye I could see nothing out of before. 

In fact, it is actually remarkable. When I see this a part of me thinks, oh what's another 6 months of chemo? Then I remember and NO I do not want chemo!

I told Dr. S at this point that I am just now beginning to feel somewhat normal. I still have side effects but they are waning. I do not wish to go on more drugs. Isn't it possible to just let Betty be? It's not cancer. I can now see. Can we monitor this and if it gets bigger or begins to grow you can do that shot in my eye as you suggested now that it's this small?

How about I come every 6 months?

Dr S:  6 MONTHS?!  Oh No No!  I'll do every 3 months.

Peg:  How about we meet in the middle at 4 months?  No drugs and if I come back and it's grown you are able to do a shot right? Of course, if I find that I am bumping into walls again I will call immediately and come in to see you.

Dr. S:  Yes. Hmm, well you can see now. It's remarkably smaller. 

Okay, I give. I'll try this because I do not believe it will ever go away 100% as we have discussed many times. 

You can go 4 months, not my 3. Deal?  

You lived with it like this for 6 years in VA and it was stable until you moved here. Okay, every 4 months I'll do and if anything changes for you including pain in your eye again let me know right away you got that?

Peg: I can so live with that!!  I could kiss you, Dr. S.

Dr. S: he laughs but turns to both Rick and me and whispered "that's what all the girls say" 

We both laughed. Rick said later that he whispered because he knew he wasn't allowed to say such things, HR would be on his ass so quick. (rick worked in HR) I laughed and said I guess he was willing to risk it because he kinda knows us now and can see we aren't normal and we wouldn't go to HR and get him in trouble. 

So NO drugs!  I can continue to get this shit out of my system, which he continues to tell me could be 6 months sometimes longer. 

I return in February to do this all again and if it has grown I get the ole sharp stick in the eye. If it is still stable, we move along until 4 months later and we'll do it again. We shall see. HA, no pun intended.

I can't even begin to tell you how thrilled I am about this.

The night before I was stressed. I wasn't thrilled with the sharp stick in the eye but I was so worried about more drugs. I knew the shot in the eye was prednisone, which I have begun to hate, and I knew it came with a side of Humira, which I'd have to inject myself with twice a month I believe.

Rick left his ugly chair and came over to where I was on the sofa and just gave me a hug. I asked, "what is that for?"  

He said, "I can hear you stressing over here!  It's going to be fine, the worst is over, you're gonna be fine!"

He makes me laugh. I didn't even have to share the words and he knew. 

I was stressing and thinking about it.  In all honesty, I have a lot of issues with the side effects of drugs. I wish I didn't and I could enjoy them like my friends and husband. 😁

My husband used to say in his corporate days when he got home on a Friday that a Vicodin and a glass of wine would be the perfect way to end his week. That would always make me laugh. Not like he did it. He just used to say it. But if he had had one...

I got Vicodin once after surgery and I broke out in hives so bad the hospital told me they had never seen it this bad before and the ones on my head and hands were miserable. So drugs and I don't mix well. Good thing I never did anything more than pot as a kid. I fear what may have happened to me. 

I used to be the driver or the hair holder to all my friends taking acid, mushrooms,etc. Ah, the early 70s. I drank, and I loved pot. 

It's all the same today. No other drugs for me, I'm a big fat wuss.

So when we left Duke it was one helluva good high I was on. No more drugs!  I can see pretty damn well out of this eye!  I am free to continue to let all this shit out of my body for 4 more months. If I had won the lottery it would have been the perfect day.

So there ya go. Betty has not left the building. She seems to like her place in my eye. I wanted to make it more of a hostile environment but I am not willing to do 6 more months of chemo. I had someone say, just do 6 more months. Hmm, you do it for me and then tell me you want more. Call me a baby, a wuss, anything you want because I do not care. 

I've lived it and don't wish to again. 

I don't even remember the beginning days when I was so amped up on 60mg of steroids and chemo. I was out of my mind as well as physically sick. I recall being so very ill and thinking death couldn't be any worse but that's all. I remember the later parts because I was taking less as time went on of steroids. Steroids are evil !!!!!

 I'm going to have a fun weekend of painting or some such thing that is a constant in my life now. It could be worse right? I could have to be on chemo again. So painting sounds wonderful to me!

____________

Betty's not leaving but Betty Lou's Getting Out Tonight.

I love this song from way back in the 70s. I had never seen it to this video though and it kind of made me laugh. A good many of those clothes are back in styles which I think is cool.   

My Eye

I am off to Duke Eye Ctr today. I got a 7.5 week reprieve from drugs and now starting round 2. I am just now starting to feel more like myself so if course more drugs to ruin that!

I don't want more drugs!

We shall see how this plays out. 

Be back soon!

Monday Fun Day

I was expecting a delivery Monday from Lowes. Rick's truck has died. The panels would not fit in my SUV. Rick's truck needs a new transmission and it has 200,000 miles on it. I think that means a new truck but I am not certain how - another story for another time.

I woke up and quietly tip-toed out to the hall bathroom. I was attempting to be a nice wife. HA  You know, things like not using the master bath and making noise with the water and toilet flushing to wake up Rick. See I can be nice. 

I closed the bedroom door ever so quietly and headed toward the hall bath. 

My phone rang and it was in the living room on the charger. I ran to pick it up so Rick didn't wake up. It was Lowes. They are mere minutes away. 

What? It's 7:56am!  But I do not say that. I say okay. 

But she just went on and on and I'm doing the pee-pee dance in my living room. 

Then I thought to myself, "oh for heaven's sake take the phone to the bathroom." 

No, gross!

Finally, I had to do what I swore I'd never do - I took my phone in the bathroom as I am saying yeah, yeah, yes, okay, yes to this crazy woman. Whew, she finally stopped talking so she didn't have to listen to me flush and then run water to wash my hands.  I might add that is hard to do while holding the phone with your chin.

That was a new low but geez what a crazy minute after waking up. 

Now I stepped out of the bedroom in my robe. Only a robe.  If Lowes is coming I have to help them into the garage and sign so I need clothes.  I quietly went back to the bedroom to search for clothes in the dark. I don't have time to shower or do my hair so I grabbed my toothbrush and paste, my NYY baseball cap, and head to the hall bath to brush my teeth and head to the garage to open one side up for the delivery men.

I am a very slow waker-upper. 

All that had occurred since 7:56 am was just entirely too much and just too many things going on for me in my first 15 minutes of being awake. 

So out to the garage I go and I hear my phone in the house. 

Oh, c'mon it's just after 8am who would be calling me?  

It's Dish, they are running ahead of schedule can they come in 30 minutes? 

Sure, bring coffee is what I wanted to say but I did not. Now I realize they may need to get into our bedroom so Rick will want to get up and not be in bed when the Dish man gets here. So now I wake up Rick. 

He moans, "why? We were up late last night."  

Oh, my big baby.  I tell him why, if he wishes to stay in bed so be it. 

He hops out of bed and then he is already smiling and he begins to whistle. 

Do you all know how annoying that is? 

Who is that damn happy when you get up? Oh, we are so opposite of one another. 

We are so alike except in talents and this morning thing.

Over the years you'd think I'd handle it better. I've gotten better.

I do not wish to kill him anymore but smacking the genuine smile off his face would be rewarding. Ooh very rewarding.

After 35 years he laughs at me. I've moved from ways to kill him to finding morning Rick just damn annoying as hell. 

I know how bad that is of me but...

We both find this funny. Just not funny to me in the morning. 

Back to Lowes ---

Lowes delivers what we couldn't fit in our car minutes later. I sign what needed to be signed and off we go. I turn on the coffee pot and yell to Rick about his coffee.

I am telling you no sooner we sat down with our coffee the Dish Man arrived. 

Ah, geez.

He was such a nice and fun man. 

Again all the people who have come to our home in this first year have been terrific. Every single one of them has blown us away with their professionalism, their kindness, and their ability to do the job. Rick and I both were once again blown away but this man. Dish Service Men who came to our house up north were Larry, Daryl and Daryl. (hope you know that reference)

This man even gave me a new cable for another TV that had nothing to do with why he was here. He gave it to me for free. I knew there was a cost because the last time they told me what it would be when I was ready. I got it for free and when under the house he saw the connection for the internet was not a good connection. He asked if we were having issues. I said  "Yes, intermittent issues. "   He said, "I'll fix that for you too. Don't tell Dish I did it though"  Deal!

He was chatting with us while cutting wire etc. 

After we explained the constant issues since moving here he asked where we moved from. We told him and he goes, "ooh expensive up there"  

"yep, that's why we're here." 

Now he has an accent, pretty heavy. 

He said he moved here to North Carolina in 2018.

I asked where he moved here from and Rick jumps in and says before he can even answer, "New Jersey"  Rick says this as a smart-ass answer to the man who he thinks is obviously from somewhere else.

I gave him a look to kill. You don't say that you ass. 

Oh my goodness I panicked.

But thankfully this nice man begins to laugh like crazy.  

He says to Rick, "Guess where I moved here from? Yep, New Jersey. 

Gotcha Mr. H."

Oh my goodness we didn't offend him, he thought that was funny.

Rick apologizes and this guy says, "No, that was funny I knew immediately what you were thinking, I loved getting you back too. I like to bust your b-chops"  They both laughed. Whew

He said he has been in this country for 30 years but he has not lost his accent. He shared what N. Jersey taxes on your home are compared to here. We understood that. He was so cute and funny though even when talking about taxes. 

From the moment Rick said what he said to this man, he and Rick were always laughing and making jokes and teasing one another. 

I loved it when he told Rick to pick the one in his left hand and Rick handed him the one in his right. "Other left Mr H.  Hit your head?"  

Then he winked at me while Rick is shaking his head at the dumb thing he just did. 

He did his jersey accent spot on which made us both laugh. He then began telling us stories about Jersey and how he learned English 30 years ago as a kid. He said I sounded like an Egyptian with a Jersey-Italian-American accent. He added hand gestures that just made us crack up. He said he thought all Americans sounded like this until he ventured outside his neighborhood. Then he got speech & American English classes at his school. He had some great immigrant stories. I think he missed his calling and should be doing stand-up. I told him as much. He laughs and told us he's been told that by co-workers but he could never do such a thing he said. I think he should. 

He was under our house in the crawl space, he was in the living room, office, and back again. He was here for 2.5 hrs. 

We signed everything and off he goes. Yeah, can I now just have my morning ritual of quiet and coffee?

I see him go to his truck and then come back towards the house. 

I thought he was done. He came back into the house and handed me what looks like a thick outlet cover but it was a small power strip. 

I asked why he is handing me this. He tells me I need it in my office. 

When he went in there he saw my set up and he said this would be better. 

I told him I have a power strip under my desk for the printers and computer. He said yes, but use this one for the TV and lights on the other wall. 

Now, my concern was I didn't want to buy it and I didn't think I really needed it either. But then he says, "it's yours for free. my gift."  

But why? 

"Because you needed it and I had it on the truck. Besides, you and your husband were fun."

"Thank you so much." (I still don't think I need it but I couldn't say no to a gift it felt weird)

"The job before you wasn't so nice." 

He is shaking his head looking at me and making a face as if to say, oh they were awful. 

He was funny. And he really should be doing stand-up.

Geez and here I thought Rick offended him. Still prefer he not say that kind of thing to strangers, this time it turned out okay but it may not next time. We don't want to be those damn boomers who offend everyone. At least not by accident. 😂

Ramblin'

Baseball season is over for me for the most part. I may watch the World Series depending on who is in it. If it's Houston I will root for anyone, not Houston Cheatin' Astros. 

If it ends up being the Cheatin' Astros and the Phillies, I will watch neither. 

But if a fire were to my feet I'd probably go Astro's over Phillies. It kills me to say it but I'd have to. If you had told me the Dodgers wouldn't be playing I never would have believed you. Or that Atlanta couldn't beat the damn Phillies. Good thing I'm not Pete Rose 'cause I'd have lost all my money on those bets.

As I was watching a game yesterday the satellite kept going off and giving us an error message that said it was a weather issue. WHAT? 

It's 80 degrees, with no wind, low humidity, and not a cloud in the sky. 

What weather? Yesterday was perfect.

It came back on about 20 minutes later. 

Then later around 2:00am, it did it again. 

Right in the middle of something that was not streaming or on the DVR so I was just missing the rest of the movie. Insomnia and then this. I need a good book.

This morning I called Dish and they said they could see that there was a misconnection on the satellite dish etc. Great. Your issue, not mine for a change. They are sending someone here tomorrow morning you know between 10 - 12pm. Which generally means 2pm. 😊

We have had more issues with our satellite than we ever did in 22 years at our last home. How is that possible? We maybe had someone come out a total of 2/3 times in 22 yrs for issues. 

I thought maybe during the hurricane's high winds something got "bumped" and that is why it's sporadic. What the hell do I know. On my monthly bill, I pay an additional $1 something (just under $2) for this kind of service so I am not shelling out any money. All visits are free as are all things inside that I may have to buy unless I have this. I got new extension cables for my office and things like that. It is worth it. On the last visit I would have shelled out a few $100 so I don't mind them coming out when I don't have to pay but them coming out is getting a bit much. They have been here so many times in 1 year. I told Rick I think it's where they have this satellite placed. We didn't choose it nor did Dish. The last woman who lived here had Direct and they just removed her dish and put ours on top of the same pole. It will be discussed tomorrow, that's for sure.

Now that I can read again, I tried to pick up a book everyone has been talking about. This is my 3rd attempt. My mind wanders and I am finding it boring. I think I am giving up. It's just not for me. It reminded me of Gone Girl. Not the storyline but the characters. I skipped a good portion of Gone Girl because there came a point where I was like, "you people are horrible humans and I don't give a shit what happens now to either of you!" 

So then I skipped to the last chapter or two and saw how it resolved itself and that was enough for me. That is how I feel about these characters. 

So I need a new book. 

I am not overly thrilled with mysteries but some I do enjoy. I have a lot of books. I think that I may shop my very own bookcases in my office and living room and find something I haven't read in 20 years or so and see how it holds up. 

I met a blogger several years ago when I started blogging. She was moving from Florida to Portland Oregon. She LOVES Portland. She likes to say she found her tribe and her city. I get that, mine was Northern VA. 

She got a divorce and raised her 2 kids there. Then she saw an old flame again. He was in Portland and they had a date. Fast forward to a year of long-distance dating and he asked her to move to his home, in Winston Salem, NC. Her son was now on his own and didn't wish to move, he liked it there as well as his job. Her daughter is only 15 so she came with her of course. They are all in Portland now as I type this visiting what she calls a necessary mental health trip. I hope she can move back there someday. 

I understand how she feels.

She HATES it here for all the same reasons I do. She is 2 hrs away. 

I went to see her a few weeks ago for a quick visit because she had just gotten out of the hospital. She has been here twice. She saw all the changes/work we've been doing - be it ever so slow due to money. 

She was standing in the living room looking at the books on the new bookcases when I walked in with her drink. She said WOW you have some old books. I laughed and said, "or you're just so young!"  

You see she is 21 years younger than me. I said you can tell the years and my age - for example...Danielle Steele, Jackie Collins, and Dick Gregory. Danielle Steele would not be something I'd even pick up today. This was the 70s. I was in my late teens to my 20s. Then the 80s and Stephen King along with Fannie Flagg, etc. She saw the book The Color of Water by James McBride on my shelf. That pique her interest.  I don't recall when I read this but it's an older book. A memoir. I recall it being just an excellent book.  This went on with her comments on books, to the present-day books. 

She asked if she could borrow from my library. She told me long ago she does not give out books anymore unless someone signs that it will be returned or a new one is purchased. She told me this years ago. 

I too, do not lend books out. I stopped that many many years ago because I never got them back. 

So I said, "Should I do what you do?"  She said certainly!  

So she checked out a few books for her trip to Portland this week. 

I figure if she can read these old ones why can't I? 

Add to that fact that my memory is shit these days so I may find a book on my own shelf that I don't remember from over 20 years ago and I may enjoy it again. I may start with The Color of Water now that I think about it.

Do you ever reread a book you liked? Do you remember it all? Or do you glean new things from it or just enjoy the book again? 

Computer

My computer's keyboard was acting up. My computer is an All in One and wireless mouse and keyboard. My laptop is also dead.

We thought that was the issue for the sign in problem. Got a new keyboard. It didn't help. It would not allow me to connect to the network. It would not allow me into my computer. I had not lost anything but it was being difficult to say the least.

I called several companies. One called back. An angel was sent to my home. Oh my goodness when I tell you this was a lovely man, I mean that in every sense of the word. He was just perfect. 

He arrived on time. We headed straight to my office. I explained and then showed him some things that were happening. I then sat in my comfy leather chair and prayed what he was doing was going to work. We went back and forth with my passwords and my sign-ins and he tried various things. 

He showed me things I did not understand and I told him so and he'd laugh and say at least I was honest. Look when he was showing and telling me it made perfect sense but for me to share that with Rick or all of you - no way! I just knew he suspected my hard drive was the issue.
All I heard was dollar signs. Shit.

We tried everything that I had googled which made him laugh at me. We tried everything up his sleeve as well. All things pointed to the hard drive.

So I was given options. I just can't afford a new pc or laptop but if the hard drive is almost as much why not get a new one. Oh, I didn't know what to do. I hate that money rules everything.

He raved about this Pavillion all in one when he got here. He told me at one point that these and the newer Dell are very good and last a long time and why. (but did it?) So he suggested as one option to just put a new hard drive into this one. The charge would be around $300.  The other option is to sell me a new computer and honestly, it won't be anywhere near $300. So guess what? I got a new hard drive.

Yesterday was the most horrible day. If I were to tell you all the things that went wrong you'd think I was making it all up. Something as minor as going to Costco and all their cash registers not able to take debit cards or credit. No one could check out. But you didn’t find this out until your card didn't work at self check out. Cash only. Who goes to Costco with that much cash and even if you did you'd go over it, who are you kidding? 

Yep, I'm not proud to say that minor thing sent me over the edge on a day with thousands of those. 

I had picked up my computer prior to my last stop at Costco and brought it inside along with my Costco pickins and I refused to set up the computer. Nope, did not wish to know because if it didn't work, I was going to go into full-blown meltdown from the day I had. So I decided not to turn it on until today. With the exception of all of Microsoft 365 I have everything. Once I figure out how to restore that I should be good to go. Fingers crossed I should say the way things have been going. But so far so good. The most difficult thing so far is learning a new keyboard. Just a few buttons off and you're hitting delete where before it was a page down. Funny how a keyboard, such a small part of it all, makes such a difference. My keyboard didn't have many letters left that you could see. The buttons were fine but you couldn't see a letter on them. There were just enough letters so you could figure where your fingers needed to be and if you could type it was fine. 

He made a mirror copy I believe of my hard drive and put it on the new one. He could even show me when I began having this problem that I didn't know I was having upon sign-in. Sometimes it was slower than others. I assumed due to the apps it was opening. But it was not. Sometimes it wasn't connecting and went and made a temp file. I don't know how that works but I saw it and that helped me to understand. God love this man and his patience. I also know he gave me a break in price. He was so kind. I wanted to hug him but knew that would be inappropriate so I just shook his hand. I can't explain it but as soon as I spoke to him on the phone it just felt good. He has the best energy.

Now I have a lot of blogs to read to get caught up on.

Groups

Just hatin' my life right now.

I have to share a quick note. Went to join a newcomes group and we were rejected for being too old. They said, "we're sorry we prefer those 25-45."

This town is fucking weird man!

And no, I don't wish to organize a group myself. I don't want to be an event planner. I wish to only attend. 

When we were rejected it made Rick remind me of our first group up north. Oh that made me giggle. 

I said," maybe its us, and we're just not the group type."

"Apparently!" he says.

Since I can't type more right now, here is our first meetup group in The DCMetro area. At least that one made us laugh!

Saga continues

Well, it's been a helluva week.

I've done everything I know to do. I've followed all directions from hp support. I've called over 13 companies for help.

Finally landed on a 5 star company found on the next door app. I called, a woman asked my issue, name and phone contact. Then she told me T would call me. I hung up and thought, yeah sure!

He called within an hour. He apologized for the wait. He then got right into it. He seems to think he can hack into this for lack of a better word.

He is coming to my home tomorrow between 10a-10:30a. His price was fair. I hope his work is better than fair though.

Either I will be very happy or be in a puddle. 

I had a major meltdown yesterday so I should be ok. 

My whole life has come to a halt with this. Can't work on business stuff for Rick. It's how I pay my bills, all my addresses and info housed in this damn box.

Life here is harder. Oh not this computer stuff, but all things. I think because it's such a small 'city'. Honestly Raleigh is so small it's hard to call it a city. Not a lot of options across the board from small to large. From food to computers. Activities to chores. Everything is difficult here. Oh wait, if you want fried food it is easy to get. They actually have a fry-fest. Culture? We don't need no stinkin' Culture, we've got fried pickles and oreos. 🙂

Rick and I sat on the patio last night and went over our first year here. I tell you, complete strangers, how I really feel but don't share with Rick 100%.  I did not want to be negative if he was loving it.  Come to find out he likes it as much as me. He's a bit depressed about it all. But sadly, we're on the same page. Too small, county we live in is redneck hell, we can't leave.

So here is to Year Two. We are damned determined to make this better. Who knows how but we're going to continue to try everything we can to make this work for us.

Now here's to T showing up tomorrow and fixing this corner of my life. 

I did the best I could on my phone. But if there are extra spaces or things misspelled, I'm sorry. Blame it on fat fingers.

The S*** Just Keeps Coming

 Update from phone.

I have spent days with HP help. I have an HP Pavillion all in one. 2 issues at the same time.

To sign in there is a block to put in my pin and my computer opens. It says something is wrong with my pin, please use password. My password will not take. How to get in? No one knows. 

Any ideas? Had to get a new wireless keyboard and can't connect it when I can't get in. Everyone tells me there must be a way, yet the El Salvedoreans, who are hp help, can't figure out how.

Any ideas? I had to pay for this help to boot. 

I am stressed beyond belief with all the shit swirling around me. 

We were working on Rick's website and now of course we can't. All of Ricks photos are there.

I do have Carbonite for backup but I can't afford a new computer right now to have them dump my pics, docs etc. 

Geez my eye medical bills are stacking up. 

What's a girl to do?

A former software engineer from Raytheon told me to go to best buy they can fix it. Really?

I'm at a loss. 

Computer Issues

Typing this by phone. It sucks.

I tried writing here but the phone letters are too small for me and then I have all kinds of spelling errors. Worse than I normally do that is.

So until we get this worked out I'm unable to write a new post.

Since only 1 person read my Oct 2 post...you can go there. HA HA.

Hope to see you sooner than later. These things are so frustrating!

Flashback Tuesday

 A month ago I wrote about the adventure of my days working in the travel industry. Meeting people like Tom Wilson who draws you as Ziggy and you end up singing songs at the baby grand. No matter the city, there were always fun, kind, and interesting people to meet. It was never boring.

This flashback was in New York City. I remember this so clearly yet I looked for my eyeglasses on Sunday for over a half hour when they were on top of my head. What is wrong with me?

This flashback was just a damn good day. I closed the biggest account on the eastern seaboard, I met a fun person, saw a great play, and had all kinds of interactions with strangers at the theater. 

Just a damn fine, fun day for me.

It may not have been for Rick or maybe you, but for me, it was a nice work day. 

Here ya go - 

October

It is breast cancer awareness month so here is a tid bit about the topic from me.

In 1987 I found a lump in my breast. At this point I had just turned 31.  
I hadn't been living in Ohio long and didn't have a gyno yet. 

So quickly I found one. 

She told me to just see how it grows or doesn't grow because I was too young for a mammogram. I repeated that my mom died from breast cancer in 1969 and her sister has had breast cancer don't you think I should have a mammogram to be sure it's nothing? 

Oh, it's probably nothing, a cyst or something. 

Yeah, it's the something that concerns me. 

Again I was poo-pooed and told to wait a while and see if it changes. 
They also told me that if it hurt it wasn't cancer. It hurt but not all the time. 

It seemed to hurt more during my cycle. So I go home. But it bothers me. 

Why would they not want to give me a diagnostic breast exam, the only kind we had at that point, to see for sure since I have a family history?  That seemed so crazy to me. But at the same time, I was thinking, I'm making this something it's not because of my family history so the doctor knows. (ha!) 

Don't be a hypochondriac, Margaret!

In the coming months, it got to be more painful and it was hot to the touch. 
I again went to my doctor. When she said no, I went to another. The new doctor said I was too young at 31 years old to have a mammogram. I asked the last doctor if I was too young to die from breast cancer too? He actually patted my back and told me to not be so dramatic and left the room.

I backed off until it was hurting in my bra. I decided someone was going to help me damn it. I got someone to give me a mammogram at University Hospital in Cleveland. It was awful but at least now I'd know. It also was not covered by my healthcare because I was not 40 or over. They let me make payments. 50% down and 50% financing. Pitiful.

Thankfully this all turned out just fine. No cancer but something that had to be monitored for years. It also gave me great relief.

This all came flooding back to me yesterday when I read a story about a young woman at age 29 who had the same situation of sorts. She too found a lump and no one would help her. They told her she was in great shape and her blood work was all fine. No mammogram was needed they told her because she was too young. 

They even told her this was probably a benign cyst. How could they know that having never done a biopsy? 

Then she found a doctor who did request a mammogram only to be denied by her health care because of her young age and no family history.

They said, "go home and we will monitor this" 

But she just couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

She didn't think they were right but she kept pushing her feelings down and thinking, well the doctor wouldn't tell me it's okay if it is not okay. 

She kept telling herself she had to trust the doctors. 

Eight months after the last doctor's visit her lump grew so much larger that they finally approved a mammogram. They found stage 4 cancer that had now spread to her lungs, lymph nodes, and sternum. Yes, she had a mastectomy and after finishing radiation and chemo she was told she will be on oral chemo (sound familiar?) for the rest of her life. 

She is all of 35 today.  

All because the doctors said she was too young and ignored her requests for a mammogram. The remainder of her life is chemo. How awful to me and so unnecessary. This poor young woman. 

What the hell is too young? People get sick at all ages. I will never understand this. I also don't understand how they don't cover other types of tests needed to see more of the breast tissue than what a mammogram will provide. Like Ultrasounds, 3D imaging to see more of the breast tissue if one has dense breast tissue,etc.  I've had the ultrasound and again this is out of pocket because insurance won't pay for it all. Because of my family background, they would pay for some but not all, so I got "lucky". Not the best kind of luck but it was something.

Rain

The Tropical Storm for the most part was no big deal as we assumed. 

No power was lost and no big damage. 

City Center had down trees and that type of thing but we did not thankfully.

Our gas grill went flying across our patio which was fun.

I made sure the cover was on and its side straps were velcroed etc. 

Then I put 3 bricks on the top so the cover didn't blow off. 

During the last storm up north our cover blew off and I forked out the money for the heavy-duty Weber cover that goes to our Weber grill. I had just purchased a cheap cover the first time. This one was far more expensive so I thought holding it down with the bricks would stop me from having to buy a new one. So instead the grill took off with the cover. We had a good laugh about that. 

We got all debris from our yard and cleaned up the patio.

Mike asked me about water in our yard. 

Our yard is basically sand which sucks, but for this, it worked out okay.

We did not get any standing water anywhere on our property.

Our rain barrels used for the garden were filled up and we loved that.

All in all, it was just windy rain. It was just like a nor'easter. The only difference from a nor'easter for us was that up north all power lines were underground so never a fear of losing power but down here it's different.

I have to admit it was like a snow day. It felt like a snow day and it was too blustery to do anything but be in the house all day. The TV Talking Heads kept telling us to stay off the roads etc. So we listened.

Rick didn't even work in the workshop. Speaking of workshops/garages. One man died nearby. His power went out and he went to his garage to turn on or get the generator. He didn't come back so his wife went to see what the heck was taking him so long and he died from carbon monoxide poisoning. They assume he turned it on and perhaps was working on it or something. How damn sad that is to me. 

So for us, the remnants of hurricane Ian were nothing big here thank goodness.

So Friday instead of a snow day we renamed it a Heavy Rain and Wind Day and it was perfect for daydrinking.The temps went from 90 to 70's over night and we loved that. Finally, we could turn off the A/C. Yipee.

Because it was raining Rick proclaimed it 'a daydrinking day' and by George he was correct. 

I made us a quick lunch and we watched a movie.

We watched a movie about making wine and how a winery went from nothing to a prominent Napa Valley Winery. All while drinking wine of course.

We saw the owner on a TV show being interviewed. 

This movie was about how his winery came to be and how it all happened. He was an interesting dude about my age or a bit older. Clean cut and when you see the person he was in '76 in the movie it couldn't be further in looks to who he is today. It was a chuckle and brought back our memories of 1976.

The 2008 movie was mentioned in passing during this interview. (bottle shock)

Then they showed a clip of Alan Rickman, Bill Pullman, and Chris Pine from the movie.  I thought, gee I like these guys we should check it out. 

So we did. It was not a great movie but it was interesting because it was a true story from 1976. The music in the movie was terrific.

We were laughing about something and bantering back and forth when he suddenly says, "Are we always this funny? Or is it the day drinking?"

Must have been the day drinking because I found that comment hysterical. 

Of course, I laughed like a fool.

Bring on the tropical storms!