Texting Santa Claus

 

David and family are in for Thanksgiving.  We are having a wonderful time.  Birdie is crawling and trying to stand up (at 7 months old!) And, Alex is as bright and beautiful as always.  

Alex is excited for Christmas. Like most children, she has boundless energy and sometimes, it spills over to not listening as well as she could. But I witnessed David being a genius last night as he tried to get Alex to focus.

After two or three warnings to do or not do something, David took out his cell phone and said to Alex, "OK, that's it. I'm texting Santa Claus and telling him that you aren't listening to me." Alex stopped was she was doing and yelled, "No, Don't!" And then proceeded to pay attention and listen to Daddy. Ah, the younger generation--she knew that a text to Santa happens immediately and she didn't want to jinx her chances of a nice Christmas.

She is into stickers and coloring this trip. Birdie is into eating. Her lip is healing well and she is one happy baby.

David and Brenda look tired, but with full time jobs, community events and two kids, who wouldn't?

Tony is working a half day today and once again will be making a wonderful dinner. We are blessed to have family with us and hope that everyone has a warm and happy Thanksgiving.

Physical, The Moon and The Holidays

 

Well, the dreaded physical is over.  Actually, it wasn't too bad.  My numbers are trending in the right direction--although I still need to work on my bad cholesterol.  I have to have a cat scan for the nodules on my lungs so I hope to get that scheduled before Christmas.  All of my "functions" (liver, white blood cells, red blood cells, kidneys, etc.) are all good and for once, my blood pressure was "normal."  I guess being on 3 different kinds of BP meds is working!  At any rate, other than the nodules, the shortness of breath, purple, swollen feet and losing another inch of height, I'm doing well for someone my age!

It's getting downright chilly down here.  I know all of our family and friends in Cleveland are saying, "aw, poor you," as when I say chilly, I mean high 30's and low 40's.  Tonight, we  have a frost warning, so it's fireplace time.  

The moon has been beautiful of late.  Full and bright and just impressive.  I love evenings when you can look up and see the moon with clouds all around it.  I try to show Dixie, but she's more interested in smelling every inch of the backyard.  

We watched the poor excuse for a Browns game on Sunday.  She slept through most of it--just like Baker Mayfield.  I saw a clip after the game of Kevin Stefanski in the locker room.  He was going over the stats and the top performers.  He said, "well, employee number 24 (Chubb) sure turned up for work today."  And that was it.  He was right, Chubb was the only one who showed any real effort.  But, I still hate Chubb up the middle.   I love Baker, but he was finished in the second quarter.  Why he played the whole game is a mystery to me.  

We are counting down to Thanksgiving with David, Brenda and the girls.  David and Brenda are taking us out to a favorite restaurant, Tarentelli's, on Friday and then they have a date night on Saturday.  Oh boy, we get to watch the girls.  Birdie is doing so well after her surgery.  The scar is getting more faint everyday.  Both girls are just beautiful.  

Today, we are running around doing last minute company things--shopping, cleaning and all of that stuff that I just love to do (not!!)

Things with the papers are doing well.   The first edition of Cape Fear Voices in which I acted as Editor will be out in December.  We have to redo the website as with the split of the previous editor, he refused to let us continue to use the primary photo he took of the Cape Fear river and bridge that was on the website, so it looks kind of disjointed right now.  Check out the December issue at www.capefearvoices.org, after December 5.  We are now working on the January issue.  I'm good with Leland Magazine through December.  

Here's our moon.  Love it.  I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. 

Doctors. Lab and Karen

 

Well, it's that time of year again--lab work, nurse visit and yearly physical.  YUCK.  I liked the last physical I  had.  We did it over a zoom call.  There wasn't a scale in sight!!  This time,  the nurse marched me right over to it.  I told her to note on my chart that each ear ring I had on weighed 40 pounds.  

I got my flu shot but passed on the shingles shot.  At $400, I decided if I can live with the skin problems I have now, I can deal with shingles, if need be.   But, all in all, it was an OK visit.  The physical is next week, after my lab results are in.  It was very busy at the lab with a ton of old people.  I told Tony I ran into a "Karen" at the lab and of course, she was from New York.  The hospital has an automated system in front of the lab door.  You are supposed to face the machine and put your right wrist on a reader so the machine can record your photo and temperature.  Well, this lady breezed on by it like it wasn't even there.  She also breezed by the line at the lab window and went instead to the Urgent Care side of the room to check in for lab work.  She was not happy when she was turned around and told to stand in the lab line.   So, this woman finally gets up to the front of the line to check in and the lab worker told her she had to go back into the hallway and have her picture taken and her temperature done.  She did, but when she came back in, she was at the end of the line.  She was not a happy camper.  

Like I said, it was a busy place, so after I checked in, I waited for almost 20 minutes before being called, so I was sitting in the front row for this show.  OK, so "Karen" huffs her way back to the hallway and does the photo/temperature thing.  She comes back into the lab area looking for a seat--didn't happen.  The place was full and every other seat was blocked off for social distancing.   

So, I'm sitting in the front row for a few more minutes and a lab person comes out and calls for, "Jan."  I think she was going to finish the name, but "Karen" cut her off and yelled, "that's me."  Turns out her name was Jan, too.  So both of us are approaching the lab person and "Karen/Jan" keeps saying, "that's me, I've been waiting."  The lab person said in a very nice voice, "I understand ma'am, but this is my patient."  She was nodding toward me as she said it.  So "Karen/Jan" keeps going.  "But you called for Jan, can't you just take me?"  The lab worker said, "no ma'am, I can't, you are both Jan's, but I have her paperwork, not yours."  

So, "Karen/Jan" realizes that the whole lobby is kind of snickering at her so she goes to sit down.  On a positive note, she did get my chair, but she was one aggressive chick.  

Today we are headed to "downtown" Leland...a good 1/2 a square mile of space to go to an event.  My Leland Magazine editor and his wife will be there so we decided to get together and meet spouses.  I'm looking forward to it.  After that, we're going to a placed call Second Glass to wine and appetizers.  It will be a nice day out.  

Next week--the physical.  UG.