It appears I did not post at all in August. It was not a great month. So much pain,slept a lot. Rheumatologist recommended upping prednisone from 5 to 7 mg, which I did on Monday. Slowly getting slightly better. This means there is no hope of getting my A1c number any lower so have had to give in and take metformin,which I also started Monday. Unlike the first time I tried it, there are no bad side effects so far. First time was major stomach pain. I have weird body chemistry. Fact. I always get the side effects or have strange reactions to meds. Still pretty non-functional, but hoping it will get better soon.

Meanwhile, weather has gotten really nice. One day and night with the a/c, but otherwise nice days in the 70’s and no hot and sticky. Autumn for the win. Yes. It is September! Fall is my favorite time of the year. Then spring, winter, summer. Summer would be higher on the list except for the aforementioned hot and sticky. Fortunately, it is not all summer long. We have days and even weeks that are decent weather. I could not live where it is just hot and sticky day after day after day.

We had a tornado warning a couple of weeks ago. TAKE SHELTER NOW, said my phone alert. Closed bedroom door, because once Miss G is in there, no hope of grabbing her. So she was right by the door and right by the crate, so I crammed her in. Twice, as she got out the first time. Amazingly, she did not try to bite or scratch during her ordeal. Poor baby. Was going to go to the basement, but I could not carry her. She is heavy, since she will only eat dry food, and that apparently causes fat cats. She only gets 1/4 cup a day, and six treats that I make her chase around for. LOL Anyway, was going to just stay in the hall as it is completely enclosed with fire doors on each end, and apartments on both sides. Well away from glass. But too much pain, needed to sit, so just put her inside the door and sat in the rocker and waited. No tornado, thank goodness. It touched down farther east of me. Poor Miss G whined pitifully for five minutes, tried mightily to get out of the crate, and then was quiet for the rest of the half hour we waited for the warning time to pass. Was not even mad at me when I let her out. It was kind of scary, but I am good at keeping calm. Hope that does not happen again. Tornadoes are so dangerous.

Am having housing inspection next week, because I am on Section 8, subsidized housing, and there is just clutter and more clutter everywhere, and I cannot physically deal with it right now and there is no one to help, unfortunately. Just hope the landlord does not come. He never has before, but you never know. Anyway, I know he wants me out, so this is anxiety-making. Oh, well.

Hoping to go out tomorrow. I can sometimes, but I am very rickety and hobbling with my cane and need to hang off a carriage in the store. It is very painful, but I really like getting out. I am here inside by myself at least 90 per cent of the time, so if I can get out, I am going to. Went out to eat with a friend last week. First time without eating outside since before the pandemic started. Was kind of not happy, but she really wanted to go and I decided to be either really brave or incredibly stupid. So far I am fine, but do not want to do that too often. You cannot eat with a mask on.

Hope any readers are well and staying safe. Enjoy every day. Right now is the only time you are alive, so be in this moment.

Article about refrigerator storage has plastic containers for eggs. I see these all the time. Eggs already come in a box. Why buy a plastic box and put them in that instead? Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Right?

Doing a bit better. The horrible pain episode is over, finally, and I am getting ready to go out with my friend Tess to do some shopping. Target maybe? I like Target now that they have rearranged the aisles so it is not like entering a maze with no way out. 🙂

through my blog, one July at a time. Back in July of 2010, I wrote this:

” I sort of figured out why I don’t cook anymore. Besides the energy each individual step takes, I have to think about each individual step…focus on each step. All the things I used to just do automatically are now individual obstacles to overcome on the way to the completed dish. Getting out each pan/utensil/ingredient. Prepping each pan/ingredient. Washing each veg, peeling each veg, chopping/slicing each veg, getting out the oil, putting the oil in the pan, turning on the burner/oven, remembering to turn OFF the burner/oven. Each step takes energy, thought, focus, concentration, dealing with pain caused by standing, chopping, whatever. Having to take rest breaks in the middle of chopping or stirring or whatever. All the things we take for granted and just DO when we are healthy become monumental hurdles to overcome. Even making toast requires remembering to take the toast out of the toaster when it is ready and not just sitting down at the computer and finding cold toast or tea or whatever next time you go into the kitchen for a drink of water. I eat a lot of yogurt and cereal and frozen dinners.”

Now I can add massive amounts of pain to the why I don’t. This is not me, by the way. LOL

They used to bring orders to my door. Then they would text me when an order was delivered, then they would email me when an order was delivered. But those last two were delivered to the lobby, not to me, and many in my building had orders stolen. They didn’t even bother to buzz and put the order inside the security door. Nope. Dumped in the outer lobby open to the street with no immediate notice. Then they stopped even emailing me, but that has started up again.

The other thing. Why oh why did they stop making kindle keyboards? My oldest one died, and the other one is about to, so I bought an Oasis because it has side buttons. Upside down from how they should be, but still. You still have to use the touchscreen, but not to turn each page. BUT, and this is the kicker, it shows every single item in your archive. Every single item. The keyboard has an archive, but you have to select it on purpose. Otherwise, it just shows what you have put on it to read right now. So how do you find what you are trying to read in an archive of thousands. Well, go to ‘manage your content and devices’ on the laptop, and select ‘documents’ and you can delete them. 25 at a time, with four clicks needed for every page of 25. There is no bulk delete. I am deleting several pages every time I get on the laptop, but I still have thousands to go. Definitely unchecking that ‘add to archive’ button from here on out. Just never really thought about it before, because it was not a problem.

I hate touch screens. And I just don’t understand how making things more difficult and inconvenient for users is ‘new and improving’. Delivery used to be great, kindle used to be fantastic, but noooo, let’s make it better. Better for who, I ask you? Not for the user. If I could dump Amazon, I would in a second, but I really cannot shop for myself and even then, you can no longer even find a lot of things locally. They are buying up everything, too, and how is that going to work when there is no competition? They will be able to charge anything they like and we will have no recourse. Humans are seriously not the sharpest tacks in the box. /end rant.

From The Guardian:

“The summer’s heatwaves have been so blistering they have inspired their own names. In Europe, they have been called nightmarish figures from Greek mythology, but one meteorologist in the US has taken a more pointed approach – by naming the country’s heatwaves after the oil and gas companies that have worsened the climate crisis. The heatwave that has baked much of the US south-west in recent weeks, helping bring a record-breaking string of days over (43C) 110F to Phoenix, has been named Heatwave Chevron by Guy Walton, a veteran former Weather Channel meteorologist. The rebadging of heatwaves as being directly the fault of companies like Chevron is “a naming and shaming thing”, according to Walton, who wants weather forecasters and the media to be more explicit between the links between extreme heat and the burning of fossil fuels that has caused the climate crisis.”

And it’s damn scary.

WordPress is not working on Firefox. Firefox is not working at all well on Firefox, so I am using Vivaldi. They have messed with Tumblr and ruined it. Why? New and improved never is.

I had a great day, though. Went out with a friend to do some shopping, and got a butt load of those tiny little cat food thingies, like appetizer size or whatever, Catnip, surge protector, Cheetos Crunchy, which I ate already, but it was not the big bad. I love, love, love those things. Toothpaste. Tom’s of Maine without flouride, the only one I buy. Our water has flouride added, no need to use more. Flouride that is not naturally present in water is really not good for you, but my town voted to add it to the water supply, so there you are. A few other things, too. The local grocery store only had a very limited amount of the cat food things, which is why I stocked up at Walmart. Get them while you can is my motto. Mostly because I rarely get to shop myself, so get it when I do see it, whatever it is, but also because things are getting harder and harder to find. My friend and I played Big Kahuna on the laptop before she had to go home and cook dinner. Fun day. Loads of pain, but fun.

How I feel a lot of the time.

“The bright day is done, and we are for the dark.” Wm. Shakespeare

First, choice. Saw a cartoon where a woman is deciding between a man who attempted a coup and wants to be dictator, and an 80-year-old man. Personally, I completely agree that 80 is too old. We need young people who grew up in the ‘modern’ world, but I would still choose the 80 year old, because he is at least trying to do good for the country, and make life better for the citizens, unlike the buffoon of the other party, who just wants power and control over our daily lives.

Second, what is up with Firefox? Some pages don’t load at all, I keep keep ‘non-responsive’. This is just the past few days. Is it the heat? Has the fox gotten heat stroke or something? Come on, Firefox. Get with it.

A couple more that I have been thinking about for a bit. Well, my brain is drain and I have totally forgotten one of them, but the other is I watched a couple of movies about the Windermere Children, 300 children brought to England when the camps were closed in the Holocaust. They were brought to a facility by Lake Windermere and lived there for four months while they were eased into life without Nazis. It was very uplifting, but also very horrific when it was mentioned how they could see the chimneys glowing and see the smoke 24 hours a day while people, including thousands of children, were cremated. The horrific treatment, the starvation, the hell some of them spent their entire lives in up to that point. Almost all of them had lost their entire families to the Nazis. Here is an article about it:

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/jan/05/windermere-children-arek-hersh-survivor-bbc-drama

I see pictures of people proudly wearing Nazi-themed clothing, giving the Hitler salute, pouring out hate and vitriol, and all I can think is, what if it were your children? Is it okay so long as it’s children of people you hate? What kind of human being are you? It is completely disgusting, appalling, horrific to think that it happened in the first place, but more so that there are people who are happy about it and want more.

Okay, remembered the second one. Prince Charles at 70. Five years ago. Harry had recently gotten married. He and William were interviewed for this and the difference between that Harry and the one we are seeing now is remarkable. I am wondering has he been brainwashed? Something has gone seriously wrong in those five years. It is kind of disturbing. And sad. Not sure whether to think he is an utter moron, or feel really, really sad for him.

I, my own little (HA!) self, have been struggling even more than usual. So much pain. The other day I could barely move. Awake all night most nights, and then sleeping in bits and pieces all morning. One day I slept for 15 minutes. Fifteen Minutes. Come on, body, what is going on here. My brain is not working at all well, I have gone pretty deaf in the only ear that really worked, my eyesight keeps getting worse. And we have murdered the planet with our gross greed and stupidity. Parasites, willfully destroying the host we need to stay alive.

On the other hand, loving my new toaster oven/air fryer, got a new battery for my kindle keyboard. I replaced it a few years ago. Both keyboards, in fact. My oldest one has bit the dust. The battery does not seem dead, but the screen is just frozen in a very wonky manner. The newer (refurbished) one is just getting so slow, and I may try the battery in the old one, but definitely the newer one. I also bought an Oasis during the Amazon “OMG, we are having a sale. You know, when we raise prices then mark them down to still higher than they were and call it a bargain’. Because it has side buttons. It is still crap, and if you have ever seen or used a kindle keyboard, you will know exactly why I say that.

Anyway, me and Gertrude are plugging along, gone out a few times with my friend to do a bit of shopping (hanging off a carriage so I don’t fall down in pain). I’d say, in spite of all of it, things are going pretty well. I have really good friends, and something to laugh about on a daily basis. And Gertrude, who cracks me up on a daily basis. She is without a doubt, the stupidest cat that ever lived. Highly amusing. LOL It’s all good. Relatively speaking. LOLOL

I say yep. Article about a machine asking for tips. A machine. Not first time I’ve seen this, though. https://www.boredpanda.com/self-checkout-machines-ask-for-tip/

I think they should add an option that says NOT HARDLY!.

https://www.boredpanda.com/self-checkout-machines-ask-for-tip/

So yesterday, I was watching this song on You Tube. Seo Linn – Óró Sé do Bheatha Bhaile

One of my favorite songs. Anyway, thought I might comment, since I have Irish Ancestry. Instead I suddenly had the idea to DuckDuckGo my grandfather. Did his info pop right up, complete with picture? Yes. I was stunned and teared up. My DD called me later to tell me she had just discovered that my brother had died in 2020, in the Phillippines where he has lived since retiring from the Air Force way back when. There’s a place called FindAGrave.com and apparently you can add info if it’s someone you know. It was very interesting. Anyway, she is apparently into this stuff and we wound up finding info about a lot of family members. But tonight I was feeling kind of down and I realize, it was my grandfather. His picture was just right there and I miss him. He died when I was eight. Decades ago, but he was good to me and even though I rarely think of him, he was a big part of my life. He used to go on drinking binges, and would be gone for a few days or whatever. I was only four or five so time had no meaning to me, but once he told me he was going away for a bit, and I asked him to bring me back a pair of red shoes. And he did.

Here he is. Napoleon Bonaparte Gage. Who names their Irish ancestry kid after Napoleon? They called him Poley. He was a good grandfather. I am sad.

Found in my pictures folder

There’s an article from Huffpost that asks that question. Really? Do we even NEED to ask? Of course Americans are that dumb. Trump won. Vaccinations are bad. No such thing as global warming. And so much more. Is there something in the water? What? So discouraging.

It’s a good day to be online, it seems. LOL

I no longer am on Twitter, because Muskrat, but you can still read pages. This was on one. How have we gone so wrong? People are just insane.

Was a pretty good day. More pain than I’d like, but saw my doctor and it went very well. She really wants me to take metformin, and I really don’t want to, but her reasoning is that since the predisone is causing the diabetes and it is going to take several months before I finally get off it, if I’m even able to finally get off it, I need to be taking the diabetes med in the interim. But I am already having some issues with the celebrex, so I think I will have to not take it except on days I am going to be pretty active, like going out shopping or whatever, and just go back to being miserable the rest of the time. Everything medical is a trade-off. Frustrating.

I keep asking myself, if Trump is the slimy bastard we all know he is, and he is a criminal to boot, why is he still in the running for returning to office, and why oh why oh why does he keep getting so much publicity? ‘Trump did this, Trump said that, blah, blah, blah’. Why is the media keeping him in the forefront. Shouldn’t we let disgraceful, disgusting excuses for humanity just fade away? No, we can make money off this. Let’s keep covering every single thing he ever says or does. There is nothing that is not about making profit. Nothing. Journalists used to have integrity, or we thought so anyway. They used to report the news, not create it. Tell you what happened, not tell you what to think about what happened. News as entertainment. Big mistake. I honestly don’t see how we are going to survive as a country when every thing has broken down and become only about the profit. It does seem like there is no organization of any kind that you can trust any more. Not very many people, either. So glad I do not have young children or teenagers. What kind of world are they going to be living in, thanks to us?

I know, I know, I just saw one article too many today about the orange disgrace. Bah!

Until I had three days or so of being a real person, followed by one day where I skipped the celebrex, I did not realize how truly miserable I was. I got used to it, so I didn’t realize how really awful my life was. Yesterday I was not interested in eating, playing with the cat, doing anything at all except feeding her and scooping the litter box. I just felt like total and complete miserableness. Amazing what you get used to. Before I got these lovely illnesses, if I had one day where I felt as bad as I have been feeling every day for a very long time, I would have been off the to ER, thinking something was seriously wrong. Wow.

Could not have done this yesterday. That is not me, btw, just in case you have never watched television. 🙂

5 Ways to Practice Slow Living. Ha! If I lived any slower I’d be going backwards. LOL

Discovered it does not go well to skip a dose of Celebrex. Oh, well. I got so much done yesterday. Well, for me anyway. And today it’s just all pain all the time. Trade off between killing my stomach, possibly causing a bleed, and being able to actually function. I am going to go for function for now, I think. Yesterday my homemaker said I even looked different. In a good way. Not being in constant pain really does have an all-body effect, I guess.

Been a tough month. Really struggling with pain and so so tired all the time. Had an interesting experience with Zoloft, which my doctor prescribed because she said I am under severe stress. Being in pain and always very tired makes it very difficult to do anything, which yes, is very stressful. I love my doctor. My daughter says she is Ayurvedic. I am going to ask at next appointment. Treats the person, not one specific thing. Anyway, the third day after starting the Z, I completely lost all motivation. Not depressed or anything, just no desire to do anything at all. I ate maybe once a day. After four days on the couch, doing absolutely nothing but feed the cat and read on my Kindle, I decided maybe it wasn’t a good idea to keep taking it. Got better right away. Weird. I had taken it before, starting in the 90’s, and for a good long time without weird side effects. My body chemistry is so messed up. But anyway, saw the rheumatologist, who started me on Celebrex and three hours after taking the first one, no more pain. Well, not completely pain free, but so little pain as to be easily tolerated. I can now hold a pen the normal way and write without pain. I was barely able to write before, and had to hold the pen in a very awkward way. I can now stand up to do dishes or cook something without severe back pain. Happy me is very, very happy. Picture is some Ayurvedic spices.

Of course, there are side effects. Especially if you take Celebrex while you’re on Prednisone, which I am. Can cause bleeding among other things, and since I had a bleed last June and was hospitalized for three days, I am a bit wary, but risking it because PAIN is barely there anymore. So far.

My kitchen before Second Gertrude, and well before me being so not really functional. Not much on the frig or the wall now, thank you Miss G.

Am hoping to get this teensy kitchen better organized so I can possibly cook something now and then besides scrambled eggs. It is a mess right now with NO free counter space.

Oh, and my beloved toaster oven bit the dust, so I got a new toaster oven/air fryer from Wally World (I know, but Target didn’t have the plain toaster oven I wanted to get), and oh my goodness. My DD kept telling me I would love an air fryer, and I do.

And another thing. My friend Tess brought me some already prepped brussels sprouts, cut in half. I heated my iron skillet in the stove oven as I heated the oven to 400. Added a bit of oil, lay the sprouts cut side down, roasted for about 20 minutes, flipped, roasted about 15 more minutes. OMG. Best thing I’ve ever eaten, besides tiramisu. They looked burnt, very dark brown and the outer leaves got a bit crispy, which I loved, and they were so good. I ate them all. Seriously, you would not believe how good these are, and how completely different a veg it is than when you steam or boil the sprouts. Give it a try. These are not mine. Mine were even darker and I have no idea what the liquid is.

Hoping that now I am relatively pain free and not so tired because of it, that my brain will start working again and I can blog and think and all that good stuff. Fingers crossed. It’s a beautiful day, but the north wind was blowing straight in the window (I can’t close it by myself) and about 4am I had to turn on the heater fan so Miss G and I did not get frostbite. LOL It was COLD. Warmed up some once the sun came up, but still pretty chilly in here. Foot thick brick walls really keep in whatever temp it is. Okay, done. Have a good day, everyone.

This is the fourth time I have done a delivery order and it has been messed up. I asked it to be brought to my door, I choose ‘sign for it’ and still, it was left in the outer lobby where anyone could just walk off with it. Very annoying. Complained..again. Had to call some friends to come and bring it upstairs for me as I am not physically capable of doing that, because there is bottled water and other heavy things. Walmart was the only place that would deliver today, and I need the water because I cannot open one side of my filter holder to change the filter and my friend Ed couldn’t open it either. Bah! Humbug!

Have been doing really poorly recently, and I did just figure out that part of the problem was the zoloft my doctor prescribed. Lowest dose, but every day I have been so tired I can barely feed the cat let alone do anything else but lay on the couch and read. Ignoring email, not watching my streaming shows, just reading and sleeping. Much better today after not taking the zoloft last night. Instant results. The zoloft is because she said I am under severe stress, and boy Walmart did not help with that at all. With all their money, you’d think they could hire delivery people instead of what seems like random people who come in and ask if they have any delivery work. Actually, I don’t know how that works except the Walmart does not employ the delivery people it uses. Twice I did not get my order at all because they could not find anyone to deliver it. Frustrating.

Doctor wants me to take two new meds and I am now diabetic thanks to the prednisone, but I am very, very reluctant. Am going to attempt to get the numbers down by eating loads of veg and a bit of protein and drinking green tea. Fingers crossed. I see her again June 1, so hoping things are better by then.

Spring has sprung, it is now in the 70’s and has been really nice out. Windows open. Yay. Spring has sprung. I like spring.

I moved in here April of 2000. Every year, the flowering pear trees across the street have made for a beautiful spring. Up until about three years ago, every year the petals would fall all over the street and sidewalk, and then the leaves would appear. The past three years, no petals have fallen. They just weren’t there anymore. Puzzling. Very puzzling. Then there is this year. No flowers. Well, I think I may have seen one or two, but it could have been the sun glinting off a leaf. Here are some pictures from various years. The last are taken today. Is it because it has been so dry? What could cause failure to bloom? Anyone? I find this very worrisome. Is it a harbinger of things to come? I know a lot of people choose to deny climate change. It is a pretty scary concept, and pretending to yourself it isn’t happening is a bit of a comforting option, even though in the back of your mind you have to know you are lying to yourself. But no bloom. No bloom. This can’t be good.

2005

2010

Not sure of the date on this one.

Today, just a few minutes ago.

Also today.

On a nothing to do with trees note, I have been really struggling. Lots of pain, walking is difficult, standing is very painful. See my doctor tomorrow. Hoping she can help. I did make a salad last evening. Chopped cucumber, chopped avocado, chopped scallions, mayo, lime juice, salt, and tobasco. Lovely. I like salad, so long as it’s not lettuce salad. Nooooo. Today I am going to make mango caprese, which is exactly like the tomato one, but with mango instead of tomato. I love mango and decided to try this once and yep. It’s a good one.

It was my birthday Thursday. My friend Tess usually brings a small cake for us to share, but had an appointment for a treatment, so brought a small cheesecake Tuesday. Yum. Spent the actual day alone and feeling like crap, but had a lovely chat with number one daughter which perked me right up, then Friday went to Westport to spend a couple days with my friends. Oh, my. Such a good time. We had tacos and steak on the grill, sat on the deck and talked and laughed, sat at the table, in the kitchen, in the living room and talked and laughed and just had a fantastic time.I did have to watch Shark Tank, which was pretty ick. I only have streaming, not regular tv, so had not seen this before. And hope to never see it again, either. Saturday was gray and cool, but we took a drive to the ocean which is just a ways down the street. Stayed in the car and just watched the waves. The dog started barking and when I looked there was a seagull on a poll who looked like he was just daring the dog to to something. Ha! Could not sleep at all Friday night, so when I got home Saturday night, I fell asleep around nine pm and slept 14 hours. Up a couple of hours. slept a few more. Guess I was tired. I am so fortunate to have good friends. These two, and the two who live near me. Lucky Jean is happy to have good friends. I had not been there since August of 2019, just before the pandemic. Was so good to be back.