days_unfolding

A town about 15 minutes from here, Elkhart, is having a town-wide garage sale. But it ends early, plus I think that I have enough Lincoln garage sales to go to. And I've printed off maps to all of them. I refuse to get up early to go to the sales. I might set an alarm to get me up after eight hours of sleep though. Okay, there's a place that's selling planters that's only open until noon, so maybe I'll get up early to go there.

My grandma would be proud of me. I garage saled until I dropped. I got some planters, a hand vac, a car vac, a shredder, a book, a few DVDs, a couple of CDs, two shirts, a folding omelet pan, a George Foreman grill, a three-hole punch, and some plastic totes. I also got a Coach purse in good condition to resell. I think that I'm forgetting something, but I feel too lazy to check. One place was closed when I got there; I'll have to see if they're open tomorrow. I stopped for lunch part-way through. I was starting to get a headache at the end. There's a heat index over 100F. I want to peel off my clothes and soak in a cool shower, but I'll probably just take a nap.

The Google Maps GPS did a great job in routing me around. I never use it, but perhaps I should.

Whoops, I forgot to go to Ace Hardware. I don't feel like going now.

Zara is being cuddly. Z, isn't it too hot to snuggle?

Had a long nap. Woke up at 8:15 PM and scrambled to feed myself and the girls before my call to Mom.

Mom is doing well. A friend of hers said that Mom's never looked better and that "cancer [her multiple myeloma] becomes her". My aunt, on the other hand, is not doing well. A blood test for cancer is high, so they're going to do a PET scan. Also her kidney function is weak. She also tried to drive and had a lot of difficulty. My aunt said that if she died, we'd have a hell of a garage sale. I said that it's kind of depressing that everyone's life ends in a garage sale, although I suppose that you could look at it as sharing of resources. Mom was impressed by my garage sale haul.

I'm tired, so I'm going to crash. I need to check whether the garbage sale that was closed is open in the morning. Yeah, it said Sunday 8 - noon, so I'll get up an hour earlier and stop by.

I lay down for a nap last night and slept straight through until morning. Good. Zara: "Get moving Mommy, I'm hungry!" Fed them and peace reigned throughout the land. Threw in a load of laundry. Started to make my smoothie only to find that the blender needed charging. The smoothie seemed especially tasty today.

I added the GoPlus folding treadmill (courtesy xinas_island) to my Amazon wish list (I'm not thrilled with the manual treadmill because you have to hold on and it hurts my wrists), but it'll be a while until I can get it because I'm saving for the cruise. Plus if I join the U of I gym in the fall, do I really need a treadmill? There will be days when I have to bug out for music lessons though.

Read a Kiplinger article about retiring without kids. It offered some food for thought. That reminds me that I need to look into long-term care insurance. The whole saga with my aunt and uncle proved that. (My uncle really needed to go into long-term care but they couldn't afford it.)

Hmm. It's raining, and the forecasters are predicting "strong" thunderstorms. I'm staying home but need to throw stuff out. Maybe I could pile stuff up by the door and wait out the storm. And no walk today. (See need treadmill.) Maybe I'll use the exercise bike.

Read a Conde Nast Travelers article about your first cruise. Helpful.

And here comes the storm....

Went to take a nap but couldn't sleep until the dryer stopped. (The washer and dryer are next to my bedroom.) Had lunch with great interest from Zara. No, Zara, you are not starving.

I'm trying to figure out a game plan for tackling the place. I guess that I'll throw on some cleaning sweats, then throw some bedding in the wash and soak litter boxes. And then I'll work on the kitchen with cleaning breaks for my mom's bathroom and the TV room (her "bedroom").

Hmm. I looked into online knitting groups because I have an intro book, needles, and yarn. Most of the groups are from public libraries though. Can I join their group if I'm not from the area?

Got my accordion file for music and my singing exercises book. Got my music filed in the accordion file. Much neater. Cleaned off my mom's chair.

I kind of do things in fits and starts. Empty out the dryer? Rest for a minute. Etc. The girls are interested that I'm rearranging stuff. Had a moment of overwhelm. Just. Keep. Moving.

Oy. Mom isn't coming tomorrow after all. My aunt put her cell phone on a tray at the rehab place and someone threw it out. She got it back but it's not working properly. So my mom is trying to replace her phone. It's a prepaid phone, so I suggested Walmart and Target, which led me to log on to find the closest ones to her. Hell's own bells. I guess that I'll do homework soon to get it off of my plate. I've been washing my bedding, so I'll keep doing that to get it done. Mom said that she might come down later in the week.

Apparently my aunt is mad at me because I didn't ask her how she was feeling when Uncle Art died. I swear that I asked her how she was holding up, but apparently that wasn't dramatic enough for her. I am so tired of her. She says that she no longer has a family. Whatever.

One upcoming concert by Music of the Baroque has music by Purcell. I adore his "Music for a While" choral work. I had the music for it but who knows what box it's in. Sheet Music Plus has it for download though (for a fee, of course). Maybe I could ask my voice teacher to let me sing it when I need a break from Italian. (Which might be soon. My teacher picked a long song with lots of sixteenth notes and high Fs. I'm battling with it, and it's winning :)) Zara came by to check out the piano. We almost had a "kitty on the keys" piece.

I think that I need an accordion file to separate my voice, piano, and guitar music. Ordered.

The problem with practicing before I go to bed is that it gets me all energetic and buzzy. Oops.

Hmm. Andrea Bocelli will be singing in Saint Louis in October. Tickets are not cheap, but I'm sure that it would be a memorable concert.

The guitar instructor had the J&J COVID shot yesterday and is having side effects, so she canceled class. Oh well. I can nap then.

My mom called and told me to call my aunt to wish her well tomorrow for her surgery. She said, "After all, you'd call me." I had to bite my tongue to keep from saying, "But I like you." Yes, I'll call later.

I found some really nifty cruises by Windstar. Expensive though because it's a small ship. But a Greek islands cruise is on my bucket list. And they also have a cruise around the Tahitian islands. That would be awesome. Hmm, I found a Greek Islands cruise by another carrier for around $1300 single occupancy. That doesn't include airfare and shore excursions, but it's in the realm of possibility. Airfare is around $800 booking separately.

Took a nap. Woke up with a sore throat. Then I called my aunt. She's anxious to get the hip surgery over with.

I'm trying to figure out the rest of the day. Walmart is open until 11PM. I need to get the garbage out, although the garbage people might have a holiday tomorrow. I need to practice and do math. And decluttering. And get to sleep at a decent hour.

Threw myself together. Got the garbage out. Ran to the store. Came back with food and garbage bags.

Need to get cracking on night-time tasks.

Logged on to check my work calendar and found a reminder to turn on a library's interlibrary loan service tonight. I'm thanking myself for the reminder.

Had a nice long sleep. Good. I'm feeling a bit more energetic.

Quick call from Mom. Auntie thinks that the weakness that she felt when she collapsed was due to the medication that she was on, which is possible. However, the doctor gave her a shot in her hip to relieve the pain but is concerned about doing the hip surgery. He said that he'd think about it over the weekend.

I have two hungry cats hanging out near me. Zara thought that I wasn't getting the hint fast enough and started circling me. Okay Zara, let me finish my smoothie. Now we're all fed and peace reigned over the land :)

Now I'm wondering about the vaccine appointment. It's a day before my big presentation, so if I have a bad reaction, that could be problematic. Hmm.

I've decided that it will be a lounge in my pajamas kind of day (now that it's 8 PM, and I still haven't gotten dressed). All I need to do is study and practice piano.

Started studying for my computer science midterm. Then I realized that I didn't soak one of my cats' litter boxes, so I went and did that. I can be bad at multitasking. Mimi is taking full advantage of my studying and has parked herself on my lap.

The Computer Science II class will be offered in the fall. Excellent. Also excellent: I can get access to my classes on my phone, so that I can check when things are due. I wouldn't watch videos on my phone though.

Finished reading my textbook. Now I need to go review some videos. After I practice piano. I also did some tidying for 25 minutes. Trump is not getting my money!

Oh, I just screwed up massively. The midterm exam for which I was studying was due on Friday! Oh hell! I thought that it was Monday! No, the exam itself says it's due on March 8th. Phew.

Watched my videos for tonight. I'm going to study Italian for a little while and then go to sleep.

Ooh, I found something nifty. Sunsama displays a Kanban-style to do list next to my Google calendar. I wish that it could integrate with my work computer too.

Music of the Baroque is playing tonight, but I need the study time, so I'll get an "on-demand" ticket (done).

Italian was fun. I think that it's more fun because it is a group of people, but it's still a small class, so everyone gets a chance to talk. I'm thinking of asking my instructor if he could take me on as a private student to work on my pronunciation.

Ran my errands. I'm back with two-and-a-half boxes of books to go through, one of which is intriguingly labeled "music books". There's another box of "music books" that I'll grab next week. I also want to bring home some bookcases to put the books that I'm keeping on. I think I that I could put some in the hall. But I need to start at the end of the hall because I need to leave room to get the office futon out eventually.

Mom called. My aunt's surgery is off. The doctors are going to run a cardiac catheter in, have a look around, and possibly put in a stent.

Had a nice nap but overslept.

Talked to my aunt. She seems in good spirits, considering that she's in the hospital. She's not worried about the procedure tomorrow.

Need to do some homework. Done. And I'll even get a decent night's sleep.

I didn't set an alarm, so I woke up at the time that I need to get up for work. Bah. And Zara, who usually doesn't sleep in the bedroom because Mimi's in there, was on my shoulder! Good to have her snuggling with me. I went back to sleep.

It just occurred to me that I need a kitchen scale to measure out portions.

It's nice when it's the weekend, and I can linger over breakfast. But Zara wants to be fed RIGHT NOW!

Nap time. Zara decided that she wanted to snuggle with me during my nap, but Mimi was already on the bed. Rude kitty noises were exchanged. Mimi went away (in the bathroom?)

Hmm. I found a salon in the Champaign-Urbana area that's supposed to be great. Maybe I should go there when I get my new hairstyle, although it's more expensive.

I didn't cancel Freshly in time, so I got meals today. But they're a ridiculous amount of carbs, so I won't be getting them again. I might look into Factor. No, Factor has even more carbs. Yikes. Need to look into low-carb food that I can prep on the weekends. I bought a Keto slow cooker cookbook. That will help.

Hmm. My ex-husband and his wife are considering retirement. I'm happy for them.

I'm trying to convince myself to throw myself together and go to the store. It's supposed to snow tomorrow, and I'd rather drive in rain than snow. No, the rain is coming down hard, so I'll wait until tomorrow. Or I could do a pickup on Monday. It'll be dry then. Yeah, that's what I'm going to do. Economy of motion. And I still have carb food to finish.

I was looking at ketosis test strips, but how do you know that they're accurate? I see reviews saying, "Oh, they're so accurate." Based on what?

I bought the cheesecake pan on Amazon. I'm supposed to get it on Monday, and like it better than Walmart's set of pans because I need only one pan, thank you. And a kitchen scale that measures in both grams and ounces.

Entered and submitted my grocery list and paid some bills. The rain is still coming down in buckets. It sounds kind of cozy.

Zara wasn't on my lap when I was on the computer, which is unusual. I found her in my, er, their bed. Zara and Mimi have reached an uneasy bed detente.

Talked to Mom. She sounded good. My aunt's hip surgery will be at the beginning of March, so Mom will have to go to Chicago the week before then. Mom is looking into getting the COVID shot, but having to go to Chicago for three weeks or so is making scheduling difficult.

Studied Italian. I need to get up earlier than normal on a weekend for the Italian class tomorrow, but I'll nap afterward.

I woke up around 6 AM and was ready to go around 8. I ran into a snag when I called a cab and was told that only Rosemont cab drivers can pick up in Rosemont. So I asked the front desk to call me a cab. It arrived on 5 minutes and got me to the funeral home.

My uncle looked diminished somehow. My aunt said that he had lost a lot of weight. Or maybe it was just because he was dead and not moving.

No one showed up to the visitation for the first hour, and we were wondering if anyone would show up at all. But at 10, people started pouring in. They weren't enforsing 10 people or less strictly because I'm sure at some point, there were more than 10 people.

Then we went to the church for the funeral. My aunt was able to walk down the aisle using her walker, and she wasn't sure if she'd be able to do that. I felt like a fish out of water because it was a Catholic funeral mass, and I'm not Catholic and everyone else was. My mom had to tell me to take my aunt's hand at one point, which didn't seem very COVID-friendly. Anyway, we got through it and was able to see him buried, which I don't think that they used to do.

We gathered back at the house for lunch. Most of them ordered Italian beef, and I asked for a hot dog, not realizing that it wouldn't be enough food. My uncle's nephew, who's a commercial pilot, and a friend of my aunt was there, and we wound up talking plane crashes, which is a subject that I actually know something about. My mom told the pilot that I was into plane crashes when I was younger, and he quipped, "So that's why you took the train!" I laughed.

The pilot and my aunt's friend left, and my aunt promptly fell asleep on the couch. My mom decided to take me back to the hotel. I lay down for a little while...and slept straight through until morning.

My new boss's boss sent us popcorn and chocolate. That was nice.

It's nice to be able to relax and not scramble to get to work. Yay weekend! Got us all fed. Ate some popcorn, and it was good.

Napped. I'm trying to decide if I should eat and throw myself together. I don't know if I'll be talking to my mom tonight or not. Things get weird when she's at my aunt's house. Now I'm thinking of staying in and going out tomorrow because I need to pick up a prescription. I'm out of bread, but I can deal with it.

I really want another nap, but I wonder if I'd be able to get to bed early if I took one. My prescription is ready, so I could go out now. I napped.

Got my lazy butt into the shower. Found my Christmas cookie recipe. Cleaned out part of the refrigerator to make room for chilled cookie dough. Took out the garbage.

Started to make the cookie dough, but realized that I didn't put the butter out to soften. Bother. I did find my hand mixer though.

Talked to Mom. Uncle Art is doing well--they even gave him a walker--but he's on morphine for the pain from the surgery and is confused. My aunt can barely walk and is in a lot of pain. The doctors don't have her pain shot scheduled yet. Mom had infected legs and had to spend the day at the hospital getting an MRI. Now she's on antibiotics. Mom says that it's hard to stay in someone else's house.

I just feel like going to sleep. I'll bake cookies tomorrow.

Woke up at 7 AM. Went back to sleep. Woke up at 9. Was up for a little while, then went back to sleep. Woke up at 1 PM. I'm up. Zara got up too, now that she knows that I'm up.

Hmm. Goodwill closes at 7 tonight. I might make it.

I bought a Christmas tree cookie cutter yesterday. Today, I decided that I wanted a snowman too, so I bought one. I've decided what to do about the cookie tins. Walmart was selling Christmas cookie tins full of cookies. They were cheaper than the Amazon tins, so I'll get them and empty the cookies into the plastic containers that I bought. And eat them.

I bought the Rituals hand cream for my mom and for myself. I had my mom's shipped directly to her so as not to wait to ship her gifts until I got it.

I'm looking for a CD/cassette boombox so that I could listen to Nightingale-Conant programs in the morning, but some are pretty expensive. I need to check out the thrift store first. Found one on Mercari, but still want to check out the thrift store. Actually, N-C programs are cheaper on Audible than on eBay or the N-C site. So I resubscribed to Audible. I need to clean off my phone to make room for audiobooks. I got Change Your Beliefs, Change Your Life and How to Have the Best Year Ever. Seemed appropriate.

Talked to Mom. My aunt and uncle are in a real bind with their health problems. My aunt dumps on my mom, and my mom dumps on me, but that's okay. Mom is going to send the cookie recipe.

Watched the first episode of The Crown. Prince Charles is starting to date Diana. Oh no.

I can't believe how many people are traveling for Thanksgiving. Doesn't anyone listen to the CDC?

I guess that it's bed time.

CNN just projected that Joe Biden won the presidency. Good. I woke up right when they called the election. What a lovely start to the day. No honking and cheering here. This is Trump country.

On CNN, I was watching people celebrating in the streets. However, the Cat Coalition informed me that they needed to be fed RIGHT NOW!

Had a nice nap. I remembered that I had french-bread pizza in the freezer and discovered that I had apple-walnut cake, so I had a feast for lunch.

Watched Kamala Harris' and Joe Biden's speeches. Good speeches.

Ran to the store to get bread, jam, and milk. It seemed quiet outside.

Talked to Mom. At first, I couldn't get through to her because of a weird phone thing, but she called me. We're relieved that the election is over and Joe Biden won. My aunt and uncle are having serious health problems, and my aunt doesn't know what to do. My mom is wondering if she'll have to come to Chicago to help out, but her health isn't the greatest either.

Watched an interesting discussion between Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon about whether Biden can unite the country. Chris was the optimist, and Don was the pessimist. Don was wondering how you can communicate with a conspiracy theorist. And that's the thing. My aunt seriously told my mom that the Democrats would put Biden in a home and AOC would take over, and dire things would happen. How can you communicate with someone who believes that?

I'm going to go to bed early and bask in the feeling of contentment.