My 73rd!

Here are some photos taken at Straw Hat Pizza this evening.

My babies and me!

I had a great time and a great meal, to say nothing about how wonderful the beer tasted.  But loving family and friendship are the best!

I am a proud and happy mother, and just wish their dad could be here with us - he always loved his pizza, beer, a good time, and surrounded by family!

What is it about birthdays

Last year I was recovering from pneumonia, and this year I'm not feeling so well either.  In the next couple of months I have the gallbladder surgery and another ERCP, plus dental work that desperately needs to be done.  The only thing I can do to counteract all the gloom is to start planning a camping trip!

Mike gets in at about 1:00 this afternoon, and I think it's all set for pizza and beer tonight at Straw Hat.  I don't know how much of either I will be able to have, but I'll give it the good old birthday try.

Tomorrow Mike, Steve and I will drive down to Livermore, CA where we will be over the weekend.  All my siblings will be there - the first time we've all been together for quite a few years.  I'm looking forward to taking lots of pictures.

The occasion is that Rob, my youngest brother, is being ordained a permanent deacon of the Catholic church.   It will be good to see everyone again, and especially since it will be a happy occasion rather than the other kind.  My daughter and her family will be driving down on Saturday afternoon, and I think Joe is going to try to get there as well.  Joe is in his final weeks of school and probably needs a short break from the studies.

I got a call yesterday that my roll of b&w film is developed and ready to be picked up, so I got dressed this morning for the drive over when I realized I took an oxycodone tablet at about 7 a.m.  The medicine doesn't make me feel woozy or the slightest bit light headed, but I don't dare drive for a while.  I'll just get the film next Monday.

I don't know about anyone else, but I am getting so sick and tired of always being asked to sign in with my username and password.  Of course I ALWAYS get the response that the password is incorrect, so I end up having to reset it with a new password, knowing that in a week or two at most I'll have to do it all over again.  I've made a list of future passwords that I can use.  

I just read a blog and made a comment, but couldn't publish the comment until I came up with the correct password.  I wonder if any of the 10 or so anonymous comments I receive every day on my blog ever get asked for their password.  The comments so far have all been to the same post and I was wondering if I could just remove the post, but I couldn't find anything to tell me how to do that.  The commenters would just pick another post to leave their garbage.  Some of the comments are just a group of words that have no meaning or relation to one another, and some are a little on the obscene side.  I don't read them but get a glance when I'm marking them as spam.  Google sure doesn't protect me from this annoyance while they are constantly badgering me to prove that I'm me.

I'm going to go lie down for a while as I want to be feeling as good as possible this evening. 

Improving

I've spent the day resting after being awake off and on all night.  Joe came by to visit me this morning, and Jeannie stopped by on her way to work.  Mike called from New York.

Mike is flying to California tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to celebrating my birthday with all my children.  I had said I wanted to go to Straw Hat Pizza for pizza and beer, but right now neither pizza nor beer sounds very good to me.  I haven't eaten anything but a banana this morning, and will have some of the soup Donald made for my dinner.  I just have no appetite today but I sure am thirsty for water.

I haven't been on the computer much today and will try to catch up on blogs in a few days.  I am not concentrating very well right now.

I have had a lot of discomfort and think maybe they probed a little more than usual, leaving me with a very sore stomach.  I have been hoarding a couple of oxycodone tablets and broke down and took one this afternoon.  It really took the edge off my discomfort.

The sun is shining brightly on the dust in my living room.  It doesn't bother me enough to do anything about it right now.  I've had the front door open most of the day and it sure has taken the chill off the house.

So-so

If you don't want to read the account of my ERCP procedure, please just skip this entry.

I was in bed at 8 pm this evening, and now at 1:30 a.m. I'm awake.  I felt pretty crappy for a while but the discomfort is finally easing up.

What a zoo I ran into at the hospital today.  I had to be there at Noon for 1pm surgery, but I was taken in to the OR over an hour late.  I was, in fact, scheduled behind two others, but they were both being real jerks so the anesthesia guys decided to take me first.  The guy on my right really wore out the "f" word in just a few minutes, calling the nurses "f'ing liars" among other things.  A woman on my left was looking for pain killers and tried to match her stories up with the hoped for outcome.  Me, I just took it all in but was really glad to get out of there.  I can't believe how the attendants maintained their cool with these negative people.

The anesthetic was exactly what I'd hoped for - instant and complete, and when everything was over I woke up immediately.  They pump up the stomach with air and I've had terrible cramps - I'm up this time of the morning drinking a little ginger ale in hopes I can burp some of it away.

They got about 4 stones and had to put in a stent so that the rest of them can dislodge for when I have to repeat this ordeal.  I think the stent can only be in there for 3 months, so it will be no later than February or maybe the beginning of March.  In the meantime I have to have my gallbladder removed so that the stones don't keep forming.  Ironically I don't worry about that operation, but for the ERCP the general anesthetic is the only way for me to go.

Jeannie was marvelous - stayed with me the whole time except when I was in the OR.  I know I'm getting old because the surgeon came in and took her to the rear of the room to explain everything to her, and not to me.  I was very happy with that as I didn't really want to know the details anyway.

We went by her house on the way home from the hospital, and Donald cooked me some simple soup that was pretty amazing and tasty.

So now I think I will go back to bed and snuggle into my down comforter.  I really wish I didn't have to go through this same thing again in a few months, but I am just going to go with the flow.  And I hope to God I never act like either of the people who were in pre-op.  I'm sure my mom and dad would show up to set me straight!  

New eyeglasses

My new glasses came in today, 3 days earlier than promised, and I drove over to Walmart to pick them up.  A few adjustments and I was out of there.  You know how it is when you get a new prescription and glasses - it takes a little while to get used to the difference.  By the time I drove the mile or so home I was already feeling good about them.  The one thing I'm not crazy about is that although the lenses darken in the sun, my view doesn't look any darker.  I think I still prefer my Serengeti sunglasses, which are fine for most times when the sun is very bright.

I haven't tried reading a book yet to see if the reading part of the lens is better.  I just finished two of Patrick McManus' mystery novels and they are in my car ready to go back to the library, where I have a few more books on order.

I've done a little cleaning today but not much.  I guess I'm not planning to expire tomorrow - in fact, although I'm leery about the whole thing I'm looking forward to getting the damn procedure over and done with.  Never again!

I will try to post an update on Wednesday if I can.  Otherwise, y'all take care and I'll be back when I'm back.

My trip in retrospect

I was going to do a whole long post recapping my recent cross country trip, but most of you followed it anyway.  Of course I loved visiting with all the people - family, old friends, and new friends.  But I will narrow this down to places.

In looking back I realize I can't put anything in order of preference.  I loved so many places and aspects of the trip, but three stand out in my mind.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Unit.  For some reason I just fell in love with this place and if I ever get back there I will stay for a while.  Being able to get so close to so many buffalo made such an impression on me.  What incredible animals they are!

Tamarac Wildlife Refuge.  I have never been to a wildlife refuge, so Tamarac was my first visit and turned out to be really special.  It was the visit to Tamarac when Judy Bell and I went to Itasca State Park (Minnesota) and I put my feet into the headwaters of the Mississippi.  It was at Tamarac that I saw both an eagle's nest and an osprey's nest, and learned how to tell the difference.

Philadelphia, PA.  I loved this city, which makes it pretty  special to me since I don't normally like large cities (New York City is an exception - I love NYC! and always have).  But while Philly is a large city it has a small town, home town feel to it - extremely friendly and welcoming.  I am so glad I decided to spend a couple of days there.

So these are the three surprises.  I have spent much time in the southern Appalachians and knew I would appreciate going back to the Shenandoah, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and the Smoky Mountains, and they didn't let me down.  But I wanted to recognize the new-to-me places that made my heart soar.  

Ah, Joy!

My maps arrived and I can't wait to study them more closely.  Today I just got my bearings; they are really big maps and I wanted to determine where some of the hikes and camp sites are that I'm interested in.  The maps have a plastic coating which will keep them in good shape, I hope.  I was surprised that ordering directly from the Forest Service was much cheaper than commercial online places.  I think the two maps I received cost me less overall than if I had ordered only one of them from Amazon.

Joe came by this morning and after we talked for a while he got on the roof and wrapped my swamp cooler.  Now at least I won't worry about rain blowing in from that source, and I wish the leaks in the roof were as easily fixed.  Joe brought his youngest daughter, Keira, the recent birthday girl.  She sure is a talker but after a while asked if she could watch TV.  Sorry honey, grandma doesn't get tv!

I've really been going through bandwidth on the MiFi this month.  With two weeks left I have used 4-1/2 GB of my allowance.  I knew I couldn't get through the next two weeks so rather than worry about it going over I switched to 10GB for an extra $30.  I plan to switch back at the end of the billing period, but I think they bill a month in advance, and I hope they adjust it so that I'm only paying for what I use.  I may continue with the extra for another month and watch some YouTube videos that I've been holding off on.  I like Neil Degrasse Tyson, the astrophysicist, and I have several of his videos that are an hour or so in length that I've been saving.

I found an ad for Frontier.net that offers a pretty good monthly rate, no contract, for unlimited internet.  There are two plans, with different download and upload speeds, and I have no idea what I currently have or need.  Sometimes the MiFi is super fast, and sometimes it is really really slow.  Frontier.nets plans are both cheaper than what I pay Verizon for the MiFi, but it would only be available at my home location.  I'll have to think about it.

I have to get my things together to leave for the gym in a few minutes.  Mon., Wed., and Friday I go with Jeannie, but haven't been by myself all week.  I did walk a couple of days though.  I'm wearing a new pair of exercise pants, no doubt designed for yoga, that have absolutely no tummy control.  I don't know which sticks out more, my butt or my belly.  It's going to take intensive yoga to get rid of the stomach, I'm thinking.

A very nice gentleman called me from the hospital today to remind me that since I'm having anesthesia I need to be there a whole hour beforehand on Tuesday.  I told him just thinking about the whole thing made me sick, but he assured me that by the time anything gets started I will be completely out! 

You may remember that about a year ago I mentioned a book by Patrick F. McManus who writes articles for Field & Stream magazine.  McManus has written a large number of books on outdoors pursuits, and he also authors a mystery novel series featuring a sheriff in a back woods Idaho community.  I just finished the first of the series today, and it is so funny in parts I couldn't stop laughing.  Being a mystery there is some suspense, but no terror.  I got the first two of the series from the library and will now have to order the next two.  McManus is an excellent writer and humorist, and I recommend him, especially for anyone who enjoys the outdoors.  I am not sure if he still writes for F&S magazine - I find it uncomfortable to stand in front of the men's magazine section in stores - like I don't belong there - although I'm sure a lot of women like hunting and fishing as well as the guys.

Gotta run now - later.