It was quiet. It was warm.
I was taking a break for a couple of minutes, stretching my legs.
It was good to get away from my desk, to not be staring at a computer screen that was twelve inches in front of my face. To be reminded that the Universe is bigger than that.
A tiny bit of white atmospheric condensation gives the blue sky some texture, some character, some depth.
Keep your eyes open! Stretch your legs! Stay hydrated!
Filed under Health, Photography, Weather
I need to lower my A1C numbers and shave off a few pounds, despite the oncoming holidays and associated feasting, so I’m trying to eat healthier. Tonight it was just a small piece of broiled chicken breast and a small portion of steamed green beans. No carbs at all.
Hypoglycemia, here I come!
Crashing and burning, trying to stay awake, it’s a good excuse for some ice cream and OJ and grapes, but my head is still floating.
This “healthy” shit is going to kill me!
Filed under Health, Photography
ME???!!! Stubborn???
Perhaps. I prefer to think of it as being focused on the most straightforward solution and keeping things simple.
For example, fixing the tooth that I broke back in May or June. At that time we had no idea that we would be moving soon and playing 52-pickup with our routines and lives. Broken tooth = visit to my usual dentist = start treatment with a couple of necessary but undesirable surgeries.
Then came the move.
Do we have a new dentist up here? No. Do we have a recommendation? No. Do we know of anyone in our dental plan so we don’t have to pay 100% out of pocket? No.
So my solution for the last three necessary dental visits was to just go back to my usual dentist who had started the procedures. The only real downside was the 100-mile round trip to get to her.
It seemed to be the easier of the two paths. The more simple one.
The third and final post-move appointment was for last Wednesday. But the dentist woke up feeling ill. The good news was that her office called nice and early to cancel & reschedule, since they knew I was driving in from up in the mountains in the next county over. (Or maybe it’s two counties over…) The bad news is that her office called nice and early to cancel & reschedule, while I was still asleep. They gave me a new time and date and I grunted like a semi-conscious chimpanzee.
Today was that rescheduled date. The day before Thanksgiving. One of the busiest travel days of the year on the LA freeway system. And I’m voluntarily doing a 100+ mile round trip.
Surprisingly, and I’m grateful, the trip “down the hill” was a piece of cake, one of the fastest and most traffic congestion free of the dozen-plus that I’ve done in this whole “moving to the High Desert” process of the past six months. About 1:50 total, and there were good tunes on SiriusXM.
Coming back home at about 14:00 when EVERYONE IN THE FREAKING CITY WAS HITTING THE ROAD TO GET A JUMP ON TRAFFIC AND GET TO GRAMMIE’S AND THE TURKEY? That might have been more of a trial and a tribulation. Closer to 5:00 with multiple stretches where I didn’t go eight or ten miles in an hour, and the only saving grace in going the “back route” up over the mountains instead of the “straight route” on the freeways was that my map and GPS apps kept reassuring me that the long way around was actually an hour or more faster than the freeway route.
Okay, but that’s a lot of time sitting still with a sore tooth, hungry, thirsty, needing a nap, and having time to think about life, the Universe, and everything. And as Crash Davis so correctly taught us, “Don’t think! It can only hurt the team!”
So, I’m finally home, I finally got to the bathroom, and the adventure of this tooth is finally over!
Except…
Looking at the final X-rays, as the dentist finished up, she showed me where there are signs of new cavities growing on nearby teeth. When I *DO* find a new dentist up here (and don’t put that off), just have them contact her for copies of the old records and X-rays.
Great!
Filed under Forever Home, Health
…and then you’re gonna crash.
More dental work today. Appointment two of three on the current round, which started with the cracked and missing tooth & extraction back in June, just before the move to Hesperia. Relatively little pain today, but plenty of stress, plus the drive 2 hours down and almost 4 hours back up.
One last huge loose end in the move to finish up, getting everything out of storage and up to the new house. Since we were down anyway, it was a good opportunity to meet with the pro movers we used to get out of the house in July and have them finish up what I started last weekend. Starting out exhausted from that, plus still plenty sore from my accident yesterday trying to start unloading at the new house.
‘Tis done. And there’s a big chunk of the expense budget eliminated. Excellent progress.
Tomorrow for the spooky holiday we’ll try to get the telescopes out as we hand out candy in the new neighborhood. If it weren’t for needing to do that, I swear I would sleep for the next 72 hours straight.
Filed under Forever Home, Health, Photography
Oh, let’s get real! I was unloading crap from the Uhaul truck and lost in a fight with gravity.
It was heavier than I expected, I was on the ramp, I went down, hit my head, and it came down on top of my head to add insult to injury.
Good thing I have a really thick, hard skull. Only minor damage to the gravel next to the driveway.
Tomorrow the young, strong, professionals come in to finish the job. I might be stupid enough to do this at age 69 – I’m not stupid enough to try to finish the job after getting my ass kicked.
Filed under Forever Home, Health, Paul, Photography
I had more dental surgery scheduled to move to Stage Two on this tooth that cracked in half in June and had to be removed just before we moved in July. I wanted to stick with the dental team that started the surgery program, so we were hitting the road early for 2+ hours on the road.
I got dropped off for surgery, the Long-Suffering-Wife went off to visit her favorite salong team. I got done, she was still being beautified, so I got an Uber to meet her there.
When I got there I went to sit in the car, tried to turn it on to open the windows, and:
A two-hour wait for AAA, expecting to get Hissy towed to our old Honda dealership, which happened to be only two blocks away. Instead the AAA driver jump started the car and we drove it over to the Honda dealer, not trusting it for a 4-hour (rush hour traffic) drive home.
Another hour at the dealer, then just under four hours in traffic to get back home.
Today was Friday? I’m so confused, exhausted, and I had my jaw numbed, stabbed, sliced, and sewn, then had to deal with the car shit.
I might sleep in late tomorrow. I think it’s Saturday and that will be okay.
The latest & greatest COVID vaccine on top, this fall’s flu vaccine on the bottom.
Being over 65 and, more importantly, in a state where sanity and real science still outweigh ignorance and kissing the cult leader’s ass, it wasn’t difficult to get access to the vaccines. I’m hoping that the anectodal stories I’m hearing from hither and yon are true and it’s easy enough for those younger to also protect themselves and their health.
I’ve heard it postulated that we got kicked onto our current batshit insane timeline back in 2016 due to the Cubs winning the World Series. That makes as much sense as anything else. The hope is that if the Cubs win the World Series again it will bring balance to the Universe and we can return to a timeline where ignorant Nazi chucklefucks are forced to crawl back under their rocks and hide from the light of the Sun and the company of normal people.
GO CUBBIES!! Fly the W!
In the meantime, ignore the heroin addict with the worm in his brain and the orange makeup queen with the adderal addiction, get your shots by any means necessary, and keep yourself safe and healthy.
Filed under Health, Paul, Photography, Politics
Critical deadlines met. One way or the other. In this case, the “other” meant a marathon, 20-hour-plus work session yesterday with the final draft reports being emailed out at 03:15.
I checked with my Oura Ring to see what it thought of my two hours of sleep and the message was, “DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDE!!! WTF!!!???”
Maybe there is something to this AI thing?
I may sleep in and sit on my ass all weekend. I trust that the remaining stuff in the one PODS container will still be there on Monday. As will be the empty PODS container that was scheduled to be picked up last Wednesday, then yesterday, then… There are certain local managers and member of the PODS C-suite that would not get my vote for a performance bonus this year. In fact, I would recommend clawing back any performance bonus they got last year!
Filed under Forever Home, Health, Paul
I finally found the bathroom scale in the mountain of boxes.
I was hoping that all of the activity from the last couple of weeks would have a positive effect. I’m down about eight pounds! NOT a program I would recommend.
My Apple phone has noticed!
Filed under Forever Home, Health, Photography
Interesting times lead to a need for flexibility. Today’s our 24th wedding anniversary, but there was no nice dinner or evening out. We’re up to our asses in alligators with the packing and prepping and OH!, YEAH! I needed to put a few hours in for my job, so we’ll delay the anniversary celebration for a couple of weeks and then find something to do in our new hometown.
Our mortgage loan funded today, so all that’s left to do is close escrow and record everything. That should happen first thing tomorrow, and by noon tomorrow we’ll have keys and be homeowners again. And heavily into the task of UNpacking at the other end. It’s all a little bit unreal, but I’m grateful that we’re just a day or two from the point where it truly will be all downhill from there.
While our new home doesn’t have a pool or jacuzzi (might have been nice, but not a deal breaker at all) it does have a nice jetted tub. I’m bruised from head to toe and feel like I’ve gone twelve rounds with Mike Tyson, so come Thursday night when I’m at the new house, this will get used regularly!
Filed under Forever Home, Health, Photography
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