Friday Five!

A cruise may be just what you need.  But I guess worth weighing up the risks. Would your travel insurance cover anything, should it go awry?  I wouldn't have thought it would?

Yes, as the diagnosis was received AFTER we had booked, any emergency situation would be covered.  My husband has travel insurance as part of his benefits package and it's great.  When we had our trip to Florida where I son was so ill and spent the trip in ICU, we actually RECEIVED money as compensation.  As we've booked a trip to NYC in October (which may or may not go ahead as I will need to be cleared to fly, in other words the remaining fluid will need to be drained) and back to Florida in February, all of those are fully covered if we cancel.  Or have an emergency while gone. 

However, the big risks to the procedure were all eliminated yesterday (hemorrhage, punctured organ, etc.).  I'd be more likely to just be tired and want to sleep than anything.  But the antibiotics (if it is in fact all infection based) are ones that target this exact thing and I'll have a full three days in my body come departure, so maybe JUST MAYBE, I'll be doing cartwheels down the side of the ship.  A girl can dream! 

We know we are likely to cancel.  And while we know the kids would be disappointed, that a ride on a double decker bus would sort them right out. 

Friday. Well, it is here still, though it's close to being Saturday there.

1) I still miss Scotland. There are walking tour videos on YouTube and one goes through one of my favorite old haunts in the West End, past the shops I used to go to, and over into the Botanics. Sigh.  If I time it right, at 7:40-ish pm my time I can put BBC4 on the Roku and listen to Sailing Away and the shipping forecast, and then sing along to "My Country Reeks of Trees". Then have a cup of tea and feel sad. But I still do it now and then. I loved my apartment there. It was just exactly what I had always wanted, for once in my life. I had gotten used to everything. I actually miss Tesco. And steak bakes and Branson pickle. It really hurt to leave, but it was the right choice for us in the long run. (Fixed income for me, lack of opportunities for her.) I wish I could go back and do it all over again, though. Minus the driving lessons.

2) The garden. It's rained several times this week, for the first time really all summer, but I haven't made it over there as I've been just exhausted after work. I am assuming the weeds are rampant and am planning to spend the day there tomorrow to try to sort it all out and put it right again. Daughter will come along and BBQ us a nice lunch, up under  the trees. I have to dig the beds and get them ready to put the garlic into in a couple of months. The garlic did very well this year. We have strings of it hanging up in the kitchen, and if we are careful it should last well into next spring. We entered five items in the Fair. All took ribbons. The Daughter got the Blue Ribbon for her spiced peaches, of which she is very proud now.

3) I work in an educational institution. Next Monday is the start of the fall term. The students are moving in this weekend. I am SO not ready to deal with the phone ringing off the hook and people wandering in without masks asking questions that they could have easily found answers to in the materials we give them. I don't mind helping people who need help, but spoiled rich kids who can't bother to do anything for themselves leave me... not as helpful as I could be. And no masks. I'm still wearing one and I still have a good quality hepa filter running, but it's so tiresome having to work around the problem of those who don't. Having to take the stairs (which is painful) rather than be in the elevator, which, even if empty, could very well have a cloud of you-know-what floating around in it from the coughing or sneezing maskless person who just got out of it.  I will only be able to eat lunch there (outside) for a few more months, then it'll have to be in my car. Or maybe my office if nobody comes in unmasked all morning. (Unlikely.)

4) It's code orange here. Target and the other stores are putting the autumn decorations out. Dunkin has Pumpkin Spice Lattes and Pumpkin donuts and cider donuts  are everywhere. It's dark by 8:00pm again, and not light as early. It won't be long, I guess, before the trees start turning colors. That's always a nice time. The stores are massively overstocked. The sales are pretty amazing. But it can't last and when it's gone it'll be gone and they won't have ordered as much, so prices will go up probably higher than they were before the sales. Oh, well. Thankfully I don't need much. I did drop quite a lot at Macy's and Target this week, but basically got it all at 20% of what I would have paid for it at the normal price, and just packed it away for later. Lovely new comforter for the bed in a shade of cinnamon brown is nice, though. I'll appreciate that in a few months! My old one was getting threadbare.

5) I lost count at 400 tomatoes off of six Roma tomato bushes. I don't think I've ever had a variety that has done that well. There are still some on the vines, but I think this will be the last of them. I have enough tomato sauce, stewed tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, etc., etc., to last well into next year. I have done almost nothing to care for them other than water them twice a week. Definitely a variety to grow again next year. Tonight I have to go do another canner full. I think it'll be stewed with onions and garlic.

It's been a decent week, all-in-all, but I'm tired in an existential way again. Perhaps when I don't have to work and can retire again it will get better, as it was before.

Happy Friday folks!

1.) BIL & SIL over for homemade curry and some board games tonight! 

2.) Trying to organise Christmas gigs for the brass band (yeah, yeah, already....  but schedules fill up quickly, so need to be on the ball)

3) Playing in two concerts this weekend (orchestra). Should be good!

4.) Have beer to bottle up

5.) Having a lovely cup of coffee right now and it's going down a treat 

Happy Friday!!!

1.) Almost had a free weekend... and then a rehearsal popped up tomorrow morning.... 

2.) Busy ars* week at work. I'm just worn out. 

3.) Errr, I have now have no free weekend until after Christmas 

4.)There are a few reasons why work travel isn't happening right now and I'm missing it greatly!!!

5.) I'd like some holiday travel, somewhere warm. There are also a few reasons why this isn't happening right now. Ahh well. 

I sat down last evening to type a "It's Friday" five, but ended up going out for a walk instead. It was the first obvious day of the impending autumn - lovely and cool, with relatively low humidity and a light breeze. I haven't had the energy (or time) to just take a walk for a while now, so I did really enjoy it.

1) It has poured rain a few times now in the last few weeks. The weeds in the garden loved it. The pumpkins and squash... well, the powdery mildew loved it. I have used my tried-and-true antidote (Plant Doctor liquid formula) on them and those leaves that were not already infected are not now infected. The sick leaves have, sadly, had to go into a big bin bag as I can't compost them. The tomato plants, of course, got the blight. Same treatment and they are making new tomatoes that appear ok. Because of the rain a lot of the tomatoes that were already of good size, but not ripe, swelled and split, meaning they go onto the compost heap as well. Too bad, I was looking forward to the Cherokee Purples as sandwich tomatoes, but the vines are fighting the blight (really, that Plant Doctor stuff is amazing) and there are replacement little tomatoes coming along. We have only until about Oct 9th until our (statistically) first frost, so fingers are crossed. I'll pull them off the day before a frost is predicted, if it comes to that, if they have any color on them at all. They will ripen ok in a paper bag. But I've put up seven cases of tomatoe products this year, so if no more come in we're still good until the next crop is ready.   It's almost time to do an Armageddon at the garden - pull old plants, put on some soil builder, fork everything over, plant garlic, and otherwise prepare for winter. The summer has just rushed by! Working full-time has not left much time for my garden. (Well, not for too much longer, I hope!)

2) I had been working since mid-summer preparing for a federal audit at my workplace. A lot of moving pieces there, but it's done. We should get the findings letter in the next few weeks. There were problems, but then.... I inherited that dumpster fire, so I did my best. It's going to cost the institution a significant amount of money, the problems that were found with its not being in compliance with the regulations. (Ouchies for them!)

3) They have torn up the lovely meadow I used to be able to see through my window by my computer desk. They are building "old people" apartments there. Except there is no real demand in this area for "old people" apartments in the price range they're going to be asking. (It'll be too high.) So, as another complex built nearby did a few years ago, they'll use the lack of demand as an excuse to get the local government to allow them to rent to all comers.  (The city/county had given them a rather large tax break because it was designed to be for the elderly.)  I'm not used to seeing buildings of that size (about 180 units, three storeys) being made entirely of wood framing, but that appears to be what they are doing. There are concrete block towers every here and there, which I assume will be the lift bays, but otherwise it's all timber. Our own place is timber framed, rather obviously, because the movement of the heavy equipment over there has been rattling our building rather substantially for several months now.  I really do miss the meadow. It had a little pond in it where the migrating birds would land, and lovely old (and huge) pine trees here and there. (It used to be a golf course, decades ago.) I enjoyed sitting at my window with my binoculars and a "Birds of the Northeast" ID book.  Be happy that where you are there is not the problem of "urban sprawl" that we have here (or not to the extent). 

4) We are planning to go over to Salem next month, to play tourist. Should be a nice drive and fun.  The leaves on some of the trees are just barely starting to turn color here. I hope we have a good foliage season - they said that the lack of it last year was due to it not having been a hot enough summer. So this year should be spectacular then. 

5) We are off to the farm stand shortly. I've made enough jams and jellies from the fruit we've bought there to last us until next year (and for holiday gifts) but it's just starting to be apple season in a big way, so I'm going to see what they have in. We might go apple picking in the next week or two. I do love applesauce with cinnamon mixed it!

That's it. Life goes on. Which is better than the alternative, for sure. 

Happy Friday!!

1.) Going out tomorrow with friends to celebrate an engagement 

2.) The video game 'Trombone Champ' 

3.) Wow, my Marzen and Pumpkin Stout beers are pretty awesome.  Going to try out my Yorkshire Bitter tonight. 

4.) Apparently I still have 18 days of holiday to take before the end of the year.  My husband pretty much gets that as his allowance for a year. Grateful for the holiday time at my company, but since hubby can't take the same amount of time off, I end up always just using days randomly. 

5.) Guess I will use the time off to make more beer! 

Friyay!

1.  Well, I’m doing it.  I’m hooked up to all sorts and having chemo.  Crazy couple of weeks.

2.  I’ll be honest, I’m glad I’ve gone private.  The staff to patient ratio must be 5 to 1. But everyone, including the NHS staff said “this is why you have private insurance”. For this type of treatment.

3.  My parents arrive Sunday.  My initial appointment with oncology was Sept 29 so really didn’t think things would move quite this fast.  It’ll be good to have extra help.  My husband is going to take the kids out when they arrive, as I suspect they will be quite emotional.  Not a bad thing but would rather not freak the kids out with grown ups in bits and scared around them.  I know they just need to give me a hug and see that I’m okay. 

4.  My check engine light came on in my car this week…because WHY WOULDNT IT?  My car is 10 years old now but only has 50,000 miles. 

5.  Pharmacist just had a long visit with me and I have alllllllll the drugs.  He’s my new best friend.  Told my husband he’s my ideal dinner date.  Doesn’t hurt that he was a beautiful black man (I have a thing for black guys).

I'm  always a day late, these days.

[Best of luck on the chemo!]

1. Cousin is still sick. On Paxlovid and his sense of humor is intact, so that's good.

2. The Daughter is up and around, but does not look good. Tired, brain fog, dark circles around her eyes. Possibly that damned sinus infection again.

3. We've had a frost advisory, so I am going to go pick anything that's left that's worth picking at the garden, and start culling plants into either the compost heap or bin bags (for those plants with blight). Bringing all the plants in off the balcony, one-at-a-time and finding places indoors for them for the winter.

4. My appeal of my appeal of the denial of forgiveness of student loans, that I made back in May, has been accepted for review. By my count, I've been paid off for six months. By their count I still have two months go go. The loans have been transferred to another servicer, so I'm sure that'll muck things up all over again.

5. The power company (which somewhat ironically is National Grid) has sent out an advert for weatherizing and power-saving devices. I have ordered some shrink film to cover my windows, since at least one of the double-panes has failed and is now acting as a single pane and was noticeably colder last year. Also got a smart power strip that turns all peripherals on and off when the main equipment (in this case, a TV) is turned on or off. And also ordered a handfull of LED backup lightbulbs that have battery storage built in. If the power fails, and they are in a light that was already on, the battery takes over. They can also be removed and hanged up elsewhere to run on battery power, if needed.  Need to see about getting something like an EcoFlow big power bank to keep the aquarium heater, etc., going in case of a power outage still. We have more power failures in this town than anywhere I have ever lived!

Life goes on. The leaves are changing colors now on the trees. Last week in was in the mid-to-upper 80Fs. Now it's in the lower 60Fs.

Nan, we had such a long, hot, dry summer that our oak lost nearly all of its leaves early August.  Changed colour and all.  Weird climate!

Nan, we had such a long, hot, dry summer that our oak lost nearly all of its leaves early August.  Changed colour and all.  Weird climate!

Yeah, a lot of ours did, too.There are some trees directly outside our window (possibly crab-apple?) that took quite a hit. Fortunately there was enough ground water available here that most of the trees made it, but a good number here by where we live did the same thing - cut of the supply of nutrients to a lot of their leaves and let them fall. It was a bit unnerving.  This (aside from Scotland) is the first place I've lived where they didn't have to pipe in water for the trees and the lawns, so that tells me a lot about what the climate usually has been. All bets are now off for the future as far as climate goes, though! 

The first year we were here it rained so much in the summer that a lot of my garden just rotted in place - I have only gardened in very arid climates so I made a LOT of mistakes. This year it was a good thing I'd done the "bury milk jugs next to the plants" thing.  On the up-side we got so little rain for June-August that I didn't have the quantity of weeds I had the first year. The down-side (and there always is one) is now that it's been raining significantly again, they are making up for lost time.    The garden coordinator suggested planting winter rye as a cover crop - said it crowds out weeds and then when it comes back up again in the spring I can turn it under as green compost. I may give that a go.

It was a lovely temperature yesterday and I got a lot done in the garden while the Daughter cooked some steaks, polish sausages, and fresh corn on the grill.  (We now have lovely grilled steak for tacos, etc., for the week and that corn was just amazing.) The Roma tomatoes had blight so bad that I was planning to just pull them up, since I don't need more tomatoes, but when I got over there the Plant Dr. had done miracles. The plants looked much stronger, had lots of fresh leaves, and a number of non-blighted green tomatoes-in-the-making going on. I did pull one plant that was still looking peaky, but left the other five.    So now it'll be a race for those fruits against the coming frosts. I did manage to get a high-quality row cover good down to the low twenties, so if frost appears to be in the immediate future I'll run over and blanket them up. I wish I could put a proper big poly-tunnel in, but when it snows (and boy, does it snow here!) I'd have to mush it down the hill to get to it, and carry water in with me since they turn off the water before it freezes to protect the pipes. And it would only postpone the inevitable, since I couldn't heat it. Someday, though!

Squash bugs and vine borers got most of the pumpkin vines, but we got about 8 good Jaradale pumpkins and a dozen Jack-Be-Littles harvested, and it looks like a New England Cheese may make it still.  Everybody at work now gets a tiny pumpkin for their desk for the Holiday. Bulbing onions didn't do too well, but my "commie kale" (some Russian variety, purple and ruffly, that was brought out of the old USSR back in the 1970s) is about four feet tall and will keep us in kale until everything freezes solid out there. It' a pretty thing - if I had a house and yard I'd use it out front for a decorative plant. 

What a weird week.

1.  Started out feeling good and have felt worse as the week went on.  I guess chemo really does affect everyone differently.  Have had terrible issues but was cleared to take Imodium yesterday.  Hoping that once I can get my tummy under control, I’ll be able to eat and have some energy.  That’s the goal!

2.  First time in my life I don’t like losing weight.  Weird how it all changes so quick. 

3.  Legal guy at my work has introduced me to his wife and our stories are scarily identical, only she’s 5 years post diagnosis.  Nice to be able to talk to someone who has the T-shirt.

4.  Anyone have any game suggestions for a tablet that are engaging and hard to put down?  I’d love a distraction!

5.  Hoping to find some Campbell’s chicken and stars soup.  Funny what you crave when ill!

Hoping I have a more positive 5 next week!  My daughter has her first diving competition this weekend and I hope to feel up to going.  💕

Friyay!

1.  This week has FLOWN by.  Why?  BECAUSE I FEEL GOOD!!!  Been working and everything. 

2.  My daughter had her first diving competition last weekend and I was able to go.  She got GOLD!!!  And she stormed the competition.  Eight points clear of second place.  I love that she's found her passion and I hope that it continues to grow and be something she loves.  I'll add a photo of her that another parent caught.  For the dive she's doing, you want to make a straight line with the board before you continue towards the water. 

3.  My son found a great stick (he loves sticks) on the way home from school this week that has several leaves on it.  He has called it his oak tree and has planted it in the garden in hopes it will grow.  He's been out watering it morning and night.  We are going to have to replace it with something!  It's just soooo sweet.

4.  Today is my parent's 50th wedding anniversary!  We are off to lunch at Cote Brasserie.  I'm SO SO SO glad that they didn't want to celebrate with the family reunion on the day and that we had it in Florida in July.  Funny how things work out!

5.  Wednesday was my husband and I's 10th anniversary.  We were supposed to be in NYC (where we married), but hey ho.  Life, eh?  My husband is amazing but not exactly romantic and certainly NOT a spender.  But he ordered me flowers and told the woman to make it huge.  Go big or go home, he said.  The flowers had my laughing hysterically and crying all at the same time.  They are ridiculous and I LOVE them.

Wow, look at your daughter's form! Wow!

So glad you're feeling good this week KFDancer!!!

Friday!!!

1.) Have had a few days off work this week...Going out for a walk soon as the weather is cool, but the skies are blue! 

2.) 3 of my beers are in a competition today. Let's see....   

3.) Need to do some garden tidy up

4.) Need to clean my utility room   

5.) Making fish and chips for dinner as we found some haddock with yellow labels 

Ooooo, can't wait to hear about the beer competition PB!!

3.  My son found a great stick (he loves sticks) on the way home from school this week

  Ask your son "What is brown and sticky?"  The answer:  A Stick!