Monday night Jeffrey and I were out and about. We stopped by Starbucks where I tried their espresso truffle latte. Uh...YUM. Then we went next door to Dimple Records. I didn't buy the "White Trash Christmas" CD, but we did pick up a few things, including a couple of their $1 grab bags (each includes a movie DVD and 2 music CD's). Among my purchases was a tasty new Robert Cray "live at the bbc" CD which features performances from 1988 and 199. Let me tell you, Young Bob's killin' on that thing. :)
Sunday morning I went to the drive-thru near I-80 that's only about 8 blocks from our house. Made a call while I was waiting in line. Our cells have to be hands-free since July 1, so we have Velcro on the backs of our cells to attach them to the steering wheel. Sunday afternoon was spent watching the 49ers/Jets game. My brother and sister-in-law were at the game. He's a life-long Packers fan...which means he still loves Brett Favre...
The tule fog in California's Central Valley this time of year can make our little downtown look rather desolate...
I read every night before falling asleep. I cherish my reading time. If I read at no other time throughout the day, I at least read at bedtime. And it doesn't matter if it's a couple of paragraphs or 20 pages, I love the ritual of those moments of escape before heading off to dreamland. I've been nibbling away at this book the past couple of months. Like probably most of you, I have lots of books on my bedside table and what I pick up to read depends on my mood. So it can sometimes take me months to finish a book.
One of the things I missed about posting here at Vox was that it's an easy way to catalog the books I've read and films I've seen/watched. Might start posting to my library here again.
I apologize for the redundancy (since this is another shot of our home office area). I swapped cameras with my sister-in-law the night of the 4th, but by the time I got batteries in the camera it was late. Went to bed, having forgotten to shoot something for December Views. I woke up about 2:30 and Jeffrey still wasn't in bed. Found him at his workstation, going through old cassettes, uploading songs to his recorder so he can eventually put them on his computer. So I joined him and listened in on some old (good) stuff. ;)
Unlike most of the rest of America, I'm not really a Tina Fey fan--never have been. I don't find her funny. (And at this point, I realize that's practically sacrilege.) Do I think she nailed the Palin impersonation? Absolutely! But I do like Amy Poehler. I put this film into our Netflix queue thinking it would be some kind of goofy farce that we could snort over a few times. So imagine my surprise when I realized afterwards that I'd just watched a film (written by a man!) about two strong female characters who were the story--rather than acting as supporting players to male characters. "Baby Mama" is sort of like a fertility "Thelma and Louise." ;)
I recently came across (via Twitter, of course!) this digital series that Amy Poehler and her partners are producing for young girls called, "Smart Girls at the Party" about girls "who are changing the world by being themselves." Imagine my surprise to see that their corporate sponsor is...Barbie. There's hope for us yet, ladies. ;)
The top photo here is of our home office, which is where our dining table used to be (half of the kitchen). When H moved into our teensy house, we had to reconfigure. I still don't know how we've managed to fit everything we have into this tiny space (and having a garage helps big-time), but somehow I just keep finding little spaces to store things. I thought maybe I'd tidy up all the stacks of papers before taking the photo, but that seemed disingenius. This is what it typically looks like. :) That tiny B&W TV (which is 40 years old) is one I inherited from my mother years ago. I've only recently pulled it out and put it in the office...figure we might as well enjoy free TV while we can (since starting in February, we lose it). :)
As most of you know, I've been spending most of my online time this past year at Twitter. That's a screen shot of my replies page. If you're not a Twitterer, I realize it's probably hard to understand the appeal. It's gotten so hugely popular that now more often than not, people are using it to market and sell stuff--either themselves (the place has become rife with 'social media experts') or their products. But I joined Twitter 1-1/2 years ago for the same reason I use it now--the conversation. It's been a sanity-saver for me this past year.
The last photo is of Shelagh's wonderful post about her holiday gift-giving project inspired by Three Cups of Tea. I urge you to read it--and if you can give $5 (or more), to contribute to this very worthwhile project.
H. turns 18 tomorrow, but we gave him his gifts a day early--surprising him with them when he got home from school today. My brother's family borrowed my camera for their Thanksgiving vacation, so I'll have more daily photos when I get it back in a day or two. (This was shot with a borrowed camera.) But today was really all about getting his birthday goodies ready.. We've waited a long, long time for him to turn 18 (for some complicated reasons). Today we simply savored the last day of his 17th year as we stand on the cusp of that big day.
At a party yesterday, I spoke with someone who's at the beginning end of a good bout of parental health care issues. This person's family health issue will involve open heart surgery. I've been there w/ a much younger (40-something) patient, so I can speak to some matters (6 weeks is a long time to be the one lifting anything over 5 pounds, and doing all the driving-- which is needful while a crack-the-sternum open heart surgery patient allows the broken bones to heal). Plus, of course, there are other family issues, too.
This person will need to vent and rant over the course of the parent's healing from surgery.
I got an idea: We need to have a support group (in the form of happy hour) for those of us who're dealing with this. Get together to rant. And do so in the style of peace pipe (or other item): Whoever holds the item has the floor for the duration of the rant... and then pass on the item to the next person.
It's a strange term, that. Congestive heart failure. There are all sorts of articles about it, but it comes down to this: The heart doesn't work as well as it used to. It doesn't have oomph, and leaky valves on bloodflow's heartbound leg and narrower valves on the outgoing leg mean that fluid accumulates in the legs and the lungs, and the body is starved of oxygen.
I'm one of several adult children. My brother, who's been the point person on Dad's medical situation, needs to go outta town for a couple of weeks, and so I'm now the point person. We had our transition handoff visit on Friday when Dad, Bro and I went to the cardiologist to get briefed on the results of Dad's echocardiogram. Three bad valves, swelling in legs, and fluid in the chest cavity, weak "pump" output... that's the state of my Dad's heart. When I wrote up the results in an email to my siblings, and reflected on it more, I was struck by the picture. Inbound from the rest of the body... leaky valve. That explains the accumulation of fluid in his legs. Inbound oxygenated blood from the lungs, there's a leaky mitral valve.. which explains the high blood pressure in the veins in the lungs. And (possibly) the liquid. And the valve on the outbound from the heart to the rest of the body is too narrow.... The doc said that Dad is not a good candidate for surgery. So he'll be treated by diuretics to keep the extra fluids down.
I don't know why the swollen legs -- on their own -- don't speak as eloquently to me as the swollen legs plus knowledge of the leaky valves, but it was this meditation on the systemic cause that tickled a kind of despair inside me. Because legs can be raised, but the valve will continue to leak and backwash. There's no real fix.
I see the writing on the wall. No one knows the day or the hour, but the trend is clear.
