Trudy Myers's Blog, page 16

Taking Some Time Off

 This past weekend, Hubby and I took some time off.

On Friday, we got up at 3 AM to head for the airport. We parked at our chosen parking lot, caught the shuttle to the airport. We didn't have any bags to check in, and we already had our boarding passes printed out, so we headed straight for the security checkpoint. We were there 2 hours before our plane was scheduled to leave, so we thought we'd have time to catch some food for breakfast, once we were through security.

Unfortunately, the TSA line was full, and people were being sent all the way down the shopping mall branch hallway to line up. My back was aching by the time we reached the end of the line, and they claimed it would only take 1/2 hour to get through the security checkpoint.

Right.

We were careful not to lose any stuff at security, and hurried toward the shuttle to get to our gate. Hubby put his shoes back on while riding the shuttle. When we got to the gate, they were already boarding, so no chance to get any food. Hubby got his belt back on after he got our carry-on luggage in the overhead bins.

Once in the air, they announced they had drinks and snacks for sale, but they would not be serving any complimentary refreshments. Possibly because the flight was less than 3 hours, I don't know; they didn't give a reason.

Things like that don't usually bother me too much, but Hubby gets irritable when he doesn't get any breakfast. So once we landed in KC and our son picked us up, he took us to get some breakfast. We didn't expect him to BUY breakfast for us, but he did. Possibly he remembers how growly Dad gets when he's hungry.

Son had some errands to run, so he dropped us off at his apartment while he did them with his friend from Massachusetts. Did I mention son was getting married this weekend? Massachusetts was going to be his best man.

Anyway, one of son's cats decided Hubby was okay, and chose his lap to sit on a couple of times. Hubby has a long-present allergy to cats, but didn't react as badly as he usually does. Still, he wasn't quite sure what to do with a cat on his lap.

With the errands run, we all got in the car (no, not the cats) and headed for the small town of Carollton MO, which was where the ceremony was going to be. There is a 4-story old mansion in Carollton that is used for weddings, big parties, and other events. The bride and members of her side would spend the night in that old mansion. There was a 3-bedroom house across the street where Son, Massachusetts, Hubby and I would get to sleep. Hubby and I spent an hour or so watching the news in that house across the street while son and Massachusetts helped get things ready at the mansion. They wanted the ceremony outside, but there was some concern it might rain, so back-up plans needed to be made.

We did wander over to socialize after a while, and got introduced to all sorts of parents, step-parents, aunts, uncles, cousins and what-not of the bride. We went outside and watched them discuss the ceremony, what would happen when, and how long it would take. It sounded terribly complicated.

We went back inside and socialized some more, talking mostly to grandpa of the bride. He was a little hard of hearing, but otherwise had his wits about him, and was willing to let everybody else deal with the details of What Needed To Be Done, so it was pleasant to engage with him.

After getting up so early, we retired to the house across the street shortly after the rehearsal dinner, which had been created by the bride's side of the family. I started out by taking a little bit of everything, but as I ran out of room on my plate, I had to limit my selection of salads. The food was all good, but I was favorably impressed by the Buffalo Chicken. I'm not a big fan of chicken, but this was good, nicely spiced so it had some flavor. The dates stuffed with walnuts were also very good.

But as I said, about 8:30, we went across the street and went to bed. It had been a long day.

Saturday morning, we got up and got dressed for the wedding, then sat around waiting for an appropriate time to go over. Son had gotten a text from his Brother that he couldn't come because his fiancée had had foot surgery and couldn't get around very well yet. Good thing Massachusetts was there to be best man. We asked Son if he shouldn't be helping to get things ready, and he said no, Bride was getting photos taken of her in her dress, so he had to stay away.

Eventually, we did go over, and somebody was pinning corsages to the bridal party's lapels, which included Hubby as Father-of-the-Groom. Somebody handed me small bouquet as Mother-of-the-Groom. Son introduced us to his boss, the only person from his job who had been able to make the ceremony. After a short while, people started moving outside to the chairs, since it wasn't raining. I was just stepping outside when I saw my Eldest Son, half-brother to Son. And right behind him... our Younger Son, who had felt so badly about missing his brother's wedding, that he had left his fiancée in her mother's care and driven the 4 hours to be there!

After the ceremony, we went back inside and had pastries and caffeine while more photos were taken. We counted the number of people on the Groom's side and there were 8 of us, counting the groom. Most of us found a table and had a nice conversation. We got along great. Even as shy as I am, I managed to contribute to the conversation. Brunch was served by the caterer, and while it was good, it wasn't as good as the rehearsal dinner. We kept talking until they cleaned our table of its centerpiece, as they had done with all the other tables. We knew they had a deadline for when they had to leave, so we helped carry a few items to the kitchen for them, and then we found the bride and groom and said our good-byes.

Younger Son drove Hubby and me to our motel in KC. It was nice to get that extra 1.5 hrs with him. But we knew he wanted to get home, so we didn't keep him waiting once we got there. We checked in and found our room. Hubby found himself a cup of coffee, and we watched The Bourne Legacy, then went to bed. Who knew having fun conversation could be so tiring?

Sunday. No need to get up early, as long as we got breakfast. They did serve a hot breakfast, but it was sausage, sausage, not-that-done scrambled eggs, pancakes and waffles. I settled for a cold biscuit (No butter or gravy available; I had it with honey), a banana and orange juice. Then I had a packet of instant oatmeal. Not the most inspired motel breakfast I've ever had. We checked out just before 11 AM and sat in the lobby for an hour. I printed out our boarding passes. At about noon, the shuttle took us to the airport. The way KC's security is set up, we were through it, at our gate and settled for a long wait by 1 PM. Our plane was supposed to take off at 6:10 PM.

About 3:15, we went to the only restaurant we could get to and had a sandwich and drink each. Came to almost $50 for the 2 of us. Talk about gouging.

Expecting, no refreshments during the ride, I went to the shop and got a bottle of pop, but they didn't have any chips, trail mix, nuts or gum, so I got a roll of live savers. I used the life savers during the flight to try to help my ears pop, but I never touched my bottle of pop. I fell asleep.

The shuttle to the parking lot would only pick us up in one particular spot, so we went there, and I spent 15 minutes trying to call them to let them know we were ready to be picked up. When they got there, they were packed to the gills for the ride back to the parking lot. Getting to the pick-up spot, waiting for them, and then getting to the parking lot took us about an hour.

And then another hour to drive home, so we got home just a few minutes before midnight. Needless to say, we went to bed. And then we found ourselves 'recuperating' on Monday.

Now to get back to work.

What I Did This Week

What a relief to be Not Sick any more! I have been running errands as needed, calling people as needed, surfing the internet when needed... I even managed to get out and do some yardwork this week! Not nearly as much as I'll need to get done next week, but hey, I got started on it.

I started writing a new book. Always a favorite activity!

And, of course, I had projects to do for my big new publicity push I'm trying to get done.

I did find myself taking naps during the day, an hour here, another hour there. I sleep well at night, so I shouldn't need naps. Then I noticed that those naps always seemed to happen on days when I was concentrating on those projects. I mean, more than 2 hours at a time, because after 2 hours, I was ready for a nap.

I love writing. I truly don't mind editing. But formatting a manuscript is a mind-numbing, tedious, hellish activity to do for any length of time. After 2 hours, I am yawning continuously and can't keep my eyes open. So I stumble off and take a nap. Only to get up again and put in another 2 hours of formatting.

But it has to be done. I had started by adding new back matter to all of John's books. And in doing so, I realized that some of them had not been justified when I originally formatted them and published them. So, now that's what I'm doing, going through and justifying all the text.

It doesn't help when you start finding little mistakes that snuck through all the editing I'd done. A hyphen that doesn't belong there. An en dash that should be an em dash. A major character's name that changes its spelling (by one letter) halfway through the book and then starts switching back and forth during the last quarter of the book.

Ugh! How did I miss those things?

Well, because I'm only human.

And I'm still human, even when I'm Not Sick. 

Back to the Old Grind

 Well, I'm back to not having enough time in the day to get things done, so I must be well on my way to recovery.

Back when I was sick with covid, I didn't care what or how much wasn't getting done. With both of us sick, no one was up to doing any cooking, and we pretty much survived on bananas and soda pop for 2-3 days. We slept when we wanted to, which was a lot. Took tylenol when we had a fever and tried to drink lots of water. Which is what you're supposed to do when you have a cold. But of course, this wasn't a cold, even though it felt like a nastycold. If we hadn't been retired, we wouldn't have been allowed to go to work.

So, for the first time since I was a child, I allowed myself to be sick. Can't get my blogs posted? Okay, the world won't end. Can't work on getting books ready to be re-published? Well, with your brain fog, you'd probably make more mistakes than you'd fix, so just set it aside until you feel better.

As soon as Hubby started to feel better, he decided it was time to clean house. And I don't mean just run the vacuum and call it done. After 2 days of sorting and cleaning, we had 7 or 8 sacks of stuff to donate, including 5 pairs of jeans I'd forgotten about and which were now too big for me. Of course, we couldn't donate until we were out of quarantine, but it felt good to get them packaged up and ready to go.

About mid-way through quarantine, I started spending an hour in the evening—which is usually when I write—working on the first of those books I was updating. It was slow going, but I got a little faster with each evening that I worked on it. I dreamed of finishing it up last night, but... I hit a problem when I was inserting bookmarks to produce a Table of Contents. So I set it aside and went to bed, intending to tackle that problem today.

Now, here it is, half-way through the afternoon, and I haven't tackled that problem yet. Too many other things intruded in my day, needing my attention. Little things, big things, some things I haven't looked at in 3 weeks, so they've started howling pretty loudly to get my attention.

Time to get back to work.

Remember?

 Just a few weeks ago, I'd counted 2 'bad things' happening to our family, and was waiting for the third one to happen. Remember that? Well, I got tired of waiting and decided that a day when I felt a bit 'out of it' was the third thing, so I could stop dreading it. Everything was clear sailing for us from there on, I decided.

I think I've just proved that the old adage, or old wive's tale, whatever it is, isn't true. Bad things don't necessarily happen in 3s. Those first 2 happened over a month ago, within the space of less than a week.

On a recent Sunday, we had 2 'bad' things happen to us in the space of a day. Hubby had made arrangements for some Klingons to come over to the house and get some pictures taken in costume for a project he's working on. I woke up that morning thinking I might have a UTI, and by the end of the day, I was 99% sure I did. Those things are painful! But I couldn't get to the doctor to have my suspicions confirmed (and get some medicine) until Monday.

The 2nd thing also happened that Sunday. After the pictures were taken, the Klingons were standing around in the garage, gabbing and having a fun time. The garage door was open to let the breeze in, and the door to the house was open so the dog could be with the people in the garage, if he wanted. I was also out there, trying to keep an eye on the dog, because Hubby hadn't put him on his leash, but he seemed content to lay under a work table and snooze.

Everything was fine until one of the Klingons left. Shortly after that, a pair of them left, and I realized the dog was no longer laying under the work table. I brought this to the attention of Hubby and the 2 remaining Klingons, and we all started looking for him. We searched all his favorite hiding spaces in the house. One guy went down the street to the corner to look for him while the other went up the street to the corner. Hubby got in his car and drove around the neighborhood looking for him. We searched for at least an hour, and nobody had seen him.

It was torture, but just a couple of minutes after Hubby got back, he went and took another look in the back yard, and there the dog was, walking from the neighbor's yard, just like disappearing for an hour was a normal thing for him to do.

So here we have another 2 'bad things' happening to us in short order. I have not found a third thing happening that week to complete the trilogy. So maybe bad things happen in pairs.

Or maybe bad things just happen. Without any real rhyme or reason.

Never Ending Errands

I usually think my To Do list is never-ending, but some weeks, it seems like the Errands to be Run list is also never-ending.

Take a look at a recent week of Errands:

Monday - we needed to run to Reynolds Advanced Materials (an hour-long drive each way) to ask questions and pick up a new supply of chemicals so we could continue casting stuff. We both do casting, so when we run out of certain chemicals, we usually have to run to Reynolds within a week or two. And these chemicals have a shelf life, meaning if you keep them sitting around too long, they won't work anymore. Therefore, we can't splurge and get bunches of the stuff at one time.

Tuesday - we had to run to the local Tandy Leather store to get some leather for re-making hubby's Darth Vader costume. We did have some leather we could use at home, but not enough of it. Since that took us to eastern Orlando, we also stopped at AEO Studios to ask Allen questions about making a particular type of mold. I was envisioning some sort of 3-piece mold, but he told us the easy way to do it. That was at least 2 hours of driving to get there and back, and we forgot to stop at the credit union on our way home. When we did get home, we promptly set about making the mold as Allen had told us, so that it was fresh in our minds. Hopefully, having done it, it won't be hard to remember how to do it next time.

Wednesday- we started out by visiting an old friend who fell shortly after he had surgery, and popped out 9 of his 13 staples. He was in good spirits, and looking forward to going home fairly shortly. Then we were off to the fabric store to pick up some craft supplies and 10 yards of muslin, some of which will be used to line the leather of the Darth Vader costume. I got 10 yards because we try to keep muslin on hand for trying new patterns, but we couldn't find any in the house. Then the credit union, which we had forgotten the day before, but we were too tired to hit the grocery store on the way home. All told, at least a 4-hour trip.

Thursday- Hubby got to stay home, but I had to hit the grocery store and the drug store. And the gas station, since my car thought it was running on fumes. At least 2.5 hrs.

Friday - Back to the drug store, both of us, to get our booster shots. And take the dog to the vet to get his kennel cough shot. Between checking in, waiting in line, waiting to see if we have any adverse reactions and going home again—from both places—at least 3 hours.

How did we ever manage to get our errands done when we were working? I don't remember.

The Tax Man

 I just got done sending in our tax forms for last year. I don't normally wait this late, but instead of a refund, we had to pay extra, and I had to make sure I could cobble together the money to pay the bill. I finally got the money pulled together, and sat down with my computer to get the forms efiled.

It didn't go as smoothly as I'd hoped.

First, the tax program kept sending me into a loop, having me double- and triple-check information I had already double- and triple-checked before today. After answering the same questions for the 4th time, I finally found a way to get it to move on to prepare the document for efiling.

Then, because we didn't use this tax program last year, I had to prove that we are who we are. It was about that time that the overcast skies opened up and threw a bunch of water and thunder and lightning all over the place. In order to read the information on our driver's licenses, I had to turn on a light AND get out a magnifying glass to work with my 'cheater' glasses so I could put that information into the computer. I sat there chaffing at each little delay, yelling at my computer to hurry up because there was no telling if the next lightning bolt might disrupt our power.

Luckily, power was not disrupted, and at approximately the same time as I finally got the forms ready to go, and provided our bank information so they could debit our checking account for what we owed, the storm abated. Whew!

So, that's done, at least for another 9 months, when I get to start the process all over again. Until then, I get to move on to other things on my To Do list. Hmm. Like filing my quarterly state sales tax report.

This Week

I've had a relatively calm, work-on-your-projects type of week. Mainly, I've been editing, formatting, writing, and working on a new website for a new marketing campaign. I like writing and editing; I think they're fun. Formatting is... okay. It's not the pits, but it's not exhilarating, either.

The worst has been the building a new website. While it came pretty much pre-built, with the anticipation I would personalize it to suit myself, even that much has not been easy. I've been at it about 4 weeks now, and I'm still not done.

It's built using WordPress. I do not know WordPress. I have watched all the 'help' videos that came as part of the support package, and I have reached the point where what I'm trying to do isn't covered by those videos. I can flounder around for hours trying to find the secret location to insert a button's link, or place to upload an e-book file. And still not find it.

Don't get me wrong, the support people have been wonderful. All I have to do is tell them that I can't get a picture in the position I want it, or a link takes me to the wrong place, and they will fix it for me. I feel stupid writing them 2 emails a day listing the things I've managed to flub up that day, but they fix it cheerfully. Unless it's a weekend. They don't work on weekends. I'm so jealous of that.

I thought I would at least be nearing the end of building this website by now, and it soundslike I am. All I have left is to input the links to 2 buttons and upload the ebook files for 6 books. Oh, but that's 5 formats for each of those 6 books. It could take me another month to get it all done. {No, it won't, I just did one book, and it wasn't that hard.}

And that's just for the books by John Shoberg. He has the most books published, so we're concentrating on getting the website up and running for his books. Later, we'll add books by Trudy Myers and Linda Joy. And then, of course, every time we publish a new book, we'll have to update the website.

It really is a never-ending job.

Oh, we did take a couple evenings to tear apart a Darth Vader costume. The pleather we had used to make the body suit had begun to seriously deteriorate, so we tore out the seams of the body suit to use the pieces as a pattern. This is the 3rd time we've rebuilt this costume, I think. We're going to use real leather this time, see if it lasts longer.

That 3rd Thing

So, I've been waiting all week for that 3rd 'awful' thing to happen.

A cold? A flat tire? Forgetting something important when I went to the store? There's no telling what it would be.

I finally decided that it HAD happened, and I had barely noticed it.

I had 2 days when my stomach was unhappy and the small of my back felt tight, and I couldn't seem to focus on much of anything. We've all had those kinds of days where we're not quite there, right?

Well, I got up this morning feeling my normal self, and decided those 2 days were the 3rd 'bad' thing to happen. So now I can get back to being myself, doing things (whether I want to or not) and not have to be anticipating something awful happening.

If I count those 2 days as the 3rd thing, then I'm free and clear, with no impending doom hanging over my head!

Does it matter that I may have brought those 2 days on myself? That the day before, we went to the movies and I filled up on popcorn and pop. And then got more popcorn and pop to bring home with us? I'm not a spring chicken anymore, and too much of anything might have consequences. Well, that could at least explain the stomach that wasn't quite happy.

Okay, so maybe it was the item I forgot to get when I went for groceries. It was the 2nd time I'd forgotten it, because it never got written on my shopping list. Well, it's on my list now, so I shouldn't be forgetting it a 3rd time.

It's over, I tell you. My trials times 3 are done.

Until the next time something bad happens.

It's just an old wives' tale, anyway.

Number 2

There is an old proverb about unfortunate events happening in threes. I never really paid much attention in the past, but if that proverb is true, then I guess we're waiting to see what number 3 will be.

Last Saturday was a hard day for me. My left hip yelped in pain every time I moved in a way it didn't like... and who knew what kind of movement it wouldn't like? That hip also tried, a number of times throughout the day, to buckle out from under me. I had first noticed a yelp of pain from it about 2 weeks ago, when I semi-woke up in the middle of the night and tried to use my legs to lift my hips off the mattress to shift my body into a new position. One hip said, "I don't want to!"

Fully awake, I thought, "That's new. I wonder what it means? Guess I'll keep an eye on it, see how long it takes before it bothers me enough to call the doctor." Well, I can't call the doctor's office on a Saturday, but I definitely resolved to call on Monday. I managed to get an appointment for Tuesday.

The tentative theory is that I've got arthritis in my left hip. I'm not surprised, because the arthritis in my knees got so bad, I've had both knees replaced. (Not at the same time, thank goodness.) And I also have arthritis in my shoulders, which, frankly, I thought would be the next piece of me to be replaced, but so far they are holding in there.

So, Wednesday, I went to the radiology clinic to get x-rays taken of my left hip, to determine how bad the arthritis is. Is it already bone on bone? Then I need a hip replacement. If it's not that bad, and we can control the pain with medicines, then we can hold off for a while. They currently have me on anti-inflammatories.

In the meantime, my days have been a roller coaster between occasional burps of pain, to more often yelps of pain that make me walk very carefully and sit down or get up slowly, to bouts of "I can't concentrate right now, I'm going to lay down flat on my back for an hour or so and see if that helps." Laying down does usually help, although the first 10 minutes of it, while my back is trying to relax, can be a little rough.

The pills seem to be helping. Maybe we can get through our next cruise (April) and a wedding (May) before we need to start seriously thinking about replacing a hip.

Now, let's hope the 3rd thing to happen is comparatively mild, like a cold.

Bad News

This morning, we took Dresden (the family dog) to the vet for his annual shots. While we were there, we pointed out that the hacking cough he'd had 6 months ago was getting worse. And thankfully, he even demonstrated for them, so they could hear it for themselves. They didn't hear any heart murmurs or anything like that, but they wanted to take an X-ray. Unfortunately, the X-ray revealed a large mass in his lungs. They couldn't say definitely what it was, so we had to pay extra to have the X-ray sent to a radiologist for interpretation. We got a call back this afternoon saying it looked like cancer, but a definitive diagnosis would require we either take him to Gainesville to the Florida University Vet school, or a big vet hospital in Tampa. But the radiologist had seen several smaller lumps as well as the large mass, so s/he was fairly certain it was cancer. There's no telling how long the poor guy might have left, but so far he's eating and drinking normally, and he hasn't lost any weight.

I knew it was bad when the vet said she'd give him some of his annual shots, but not the one for kennel cough (which he'll need when we put him in a local kennel to go on our Dr Who cruise. I had to explain to John that she (the vet) was saying he might not be around in 5 weeks to need that shot. If he's still doing okay by then, we can always take him in for it.

I did not handle the news very well, even before we got the radiologist's report. I mean, a big mass in the lungs can't be a good thing. I managed to hold it together for the ride home (I was driving, and probably shouldn't have been), but I've been having crying spells ever since. And I've gotten very little work done today.

Dresden just acts like he's getting old. He's uncertain about jumping up into his chair or onto the couch any more, and sometimes he's reluctant to jump back down. And he's got this old man hacking cough. But we'll enjoy his company while we still have him.

Excuse me. I need another tissue.