days_unfolding

A guy from my hometown whom I know on Facebook wants to meet with me. I don’t want to go. I’m going to tell him that my mower guy is coming by tonight to mow and give me an estimate on cleaning my gutters (true). Oh okay, he's asking about the 21st.

Arthritis is bothering me. It's not excruciating, just mildly annoying. My concern is more about my fingers instead of my toes because that could impact working on the computer and piano.

I'm falling asleep at my desk. Crashed hard at lunch and overslept my nap.

I'm looking into BistroMD again. I got tired of their food, but I did lose weight on it.

83F/28C. It's hot upstairs. It feels like 10 degrees cooler downstairs, so I won't turn on the a/c yet. You can feel the heat as you walk upstairs. I'm wondering if I should get an air conditioner or bite the bullet and buy a heat pump for upstairs. I spend a lot of time in my home office upstairs. I'm running a fan by my desk. It's hotter in Urbana than it is in Miami. And a lot hotter than Chicago.

It's kind of giving me the creeps that people with whom I worked at the beginning of my tech writing career have passed away. But they were a lot older than me, so it shouldn't be surprising.

I got the strawberry pot. And the Japanese Spirea.

Hum. I'm wondering if I should go to bed really early and get up early to work on the upstairs. It's too hot to work on it during the evening unless I stay up really late.

Oliver went over to see what Lily was doing. She was flat out because of the heat, and swatted at him. He walked away to lie down on the floor too.

Mower guy said that the lawn was too wet to mow. It was foggy this morning.

For my guest room, I was looking at the 8-drawer Van Gogh dresser that susandennis bought. But eight drawers is really more than I need. I found a 3-drawer version. If someone has more clothes, they can put them in the closet. Though if I got the 8-drawer one, I could keep colored pencils and such in some of the drawers. And some travel stuff.

Speaking of travel stuff, I looked at the linen outfit that I wanted to wear on the plane, and the color that I wanted is sold out. I could do a black-and-white top and white pants and a white blazer. I bought a “flax” top and pants and a “driftwood” blazer. That should look okay with my brown shoes.

Done with work. I have a cat (Oliver) in my face and a dog being manic. Fed us all. I was going to take a nap, but it’s late enough that I should probably go to bed for the night.

I started reading a new biography of Jennie Churchill. It’s interesting.

I’m feeling kind of dizzy.

Bella is out cold on her bed. She got up when I did though.

Yep, a light dusting of snow. I pulled out my down jacket, and it's warm, but I need to get my gloves out of the car.

Started to get the recycling out, but the bins were full. I rolled them to the curb. Wanted to get the dahlias in, but I couldn't find the plant clippers, which I need to cut the plants down before I bring them in. My pet sitter moved them. Sigh.

I'm tired, and it's going to be a very busy day.

I've started of thinking of things to do in retirement. I'll wait until then to pick up guitar lessons again, and keep learning singing and piano and languages. And I'll write. And write songs. And garden. And travel (last minute cruises? I found a South American cruise that's really cheap!) And nap. I'm looking forward to it. I'm not sure when I went from "What will I do in retirement?" to "I'm looking forward to retirement". (Hmm, I should do most of my Road Scholar trips pre-retirement because they're more expensive.)

The webinar that I was hosting went well. I’m learning new skills!

Put the registration sticker on my car. Brought the dahlias down into the basement. Pulled out some leather gloves. I can’t find my wool gloves, but they are cheap to buy.

It’s snowing again. Note to self: turn off the outside water. How’d it get to be almost December? Another note to self: replace the windshield wipers on Mom’s car. And bring the cushions in from the porch chairs. I need a winter checklist.

Mimi is annoyed that I’m downstairs instead of upstairs with her on my lap.

I’m also wondering how I went from someone who was chronically late to getting places early consistently. (I’m at the doctor’s office cooling my heels.)

I want to read Cher’s book. It should be interesting.

Holy cow. The snow is blowing sideways.

I want a baguette and some olive oil.

Went to my doctor’s appointment. Nothing major of note. I liked the doctor this time (GYN doctor). It’s miserable out. (Well, there will be a time when I’ll think that’s warm—it’s around freezing—but the wind whipping the snow is miserable no matter what the temperature is.)

Had my therapy appointment. Nothing much to say about that either. I was talking about creating my own rituals for the holidays.

Zara thinks that the kitchen table is one of her perches. I give up :) This place is not so secretly run by cats.

There is going to be a holiday concert in December at the university, to which I want to go. Must buy a ticket.

My piano teacher rocks. I was setting up my mom’s laptop in the library room on top of my digital piano for my music lessons, and got mired in Windows updates, getting my Web cam set up, etc. And the lesson was an hour earlier than I thought. She said that she had a cancellation at 8:30 PM, so let her know if I got set up, which I did. Mom's laptop worked much better than the old laptop that I was using.

Another reason to keep the digital piano even if I get an acoustic one—if I move to a senior complex eventually, I can use headphones on my digital piano.

I was feeling tired after dinner and wondered if I was going to make it until the piano lesson. I started practicing and perked up a little, and perked up more during my lesson. Now I'm winding down a little. I think that I'll post and go to bed after I finish my lively conversation with Mimi.

I think that I have arthritis in both of my big toes. It's not too bad, but it reminded me to get more acetaminophen.

I overslept and couldn’t take a shower, but I made it on time for Italian. It went well. She asked if I had gotten more sleep because it went better.

I just realized that I put the garbage out a day early yesterday. I’m getting my days mixed up.

Apparently I broke my little toe when I fell. That’s why the foot hurts. The radiologist also said that I have mild arthritis in my big toe, but that isn’t bothering me. Oh, and I have the beginnings of osteoporosis. I need to start doing weight training. I also need to get some soy milk. (I don't digest regular milk well.)

I had been considering adopting two cats in Lincoln whose human passed away, but after talking to my colleague/friend, I think that adopting two new cats would be a bit much for Zara and Mimi. I'll just adopt one cat, and if the cat needs a young companion, adopt another cat later. It just occurred to me that I could put a new cat in the "guest room," although Mimi would not be happy because she looks out the window there and snoozes. But it would be cozy for the new cat. It would force Mimi and the new cat to interact.

Happy 100th birthday President Jimmy Carter!

I'm wondering if I should mow the lawn now that I know my toe is broken. On the other hand, I had been mowing it with a broken toe and nothing dire happened. I’ll wait until I hear back from the doctor.

I was looking into arthritis, and I think that I would benefit from an anti-inflammatory diet. I need money to get various foods though. I was able to get a book about it from Kindle Unlimited. I also got Exercise for Better Bones from Kindle Unlimited.

Crud. I went to the grocery store and bought a few things, but I forgot to get soy milk! Aargh. I did get some calcium vitamins though.

I watched most of the vice presidential debate. I intended to have it on as background noise, but got interested. I was surprised at how civil it was and how much like a real debate it was. Vance told some whoppers though, like Trump saving the Affordable Care Act?!? Oh, and I got my Harris/Walz lawn sign and put it out.

I'm feeling an impulse to drop my class, but I should just get my homework done. There's so much else that I want to do though. I need to think about this. I think that I want to learn Javascript more slowly than this class will allow. Yeah, this class is too accelerated for me. I need to get some good books and work through them. The trick will be to block out the time to do it. I'm going to drop the class, practice piano, and go to bed.

I think that's was the problem with my other programming classes too. I can learn programming, but I learn it more slowly than other people who are really good at it. I'm a slow programmer.

I tried to drop the class, but it won't let me drop. I emailed the head of my program to find out what I need to do.

I'm looking into ways to be held accountable for studying Web programming. I might have found an online meeting app, but have some questions that I sent to the company.

I'm going to practice piano and go to bed.