Hunkered Down in The Woo

Yep, we're hunkered down in Worcester, affectionately known as "The Woo" to many. We've been buffeted with much rain and wind today as we sit on the outer edge of Hurricane Sandy's reach. Fortunately, we haven't lost power nor seen much impact from Sandy. 

Many of you will recall that last year, just about this time, we had an October Nor'easter that dropped a lot of snow in these parts. We lost power for more than 3 days and ended up spending 2 nights in a hotel and 2 nights at my mother's home on Cape Cod. 

Although widespread power outages were expected, I was cautiously optimistic we'd avoid last year's fate. First off, no snow was forecast here. It was the heavy, wet snow on trees still full of leaves that brought down so many power lines last year. Second, the utility companies must have figured out it cost more to go around repairing lines after storms like last year's than policing the limbs and trees overhanging their wires, so much pruning has occurred since last year, reducing the likelihood of power outages from limbs and trees falling on lines. Lastly, we live on a street with no power lines or telephone poles, so no falling trees would impact this neighborhood, power-wise.

"Expect the unexpected and unexpected never happens," said Norton Juster in The Phantom Tollbooth. Following his maxim, I spent most of yesterday preparing for a possible outage, even one severe enough to force us out of the house and into a hotel. Retrieved Skip's manual wheelchair from storage and cleaned it off. Charged up the power chair, the hoyer lift we'd need if we decamped and every other chargeable thing in the place. Gassed up the car, got cash, etc. etc. 

At first, I was mostly preparing for us to leave with an outage, as we had last year. But as time wore on, I realized we'd probably be able to stay at home if we lost power. The key difference between this year and last is: cold. Our house got down to about 60 degrees within hours of the outage, and then kept dropping, far too cold to comfortably stay there. Here, it's been in the 50s all day and now the temp is climbing with tomorrow projected to hit 70. I only heard the heat come on a time or two today it's been so mild. 

Happily, all the preparations were unnecessary as we've not lost power and the worst of the storm has passed. It rained all day. We experienced winds gusting up to 55mph. Now the winds are about 20mph with gusts up to the high 30s. We could still lose power ... MW just sent a text about 20 minutes ago saying that they'd just lost theirs ... but it becomes less likely with each passing minute. 

I'd say the biggest effect of the day has been caused by the low pressure. Apparently, the pressure is phenomenally low and it set some kind of record. The low pressure has given me a hellacious headache and caused all sorts of problems with my inner ears. I've been feeling a bit of vertigo and queasiness, so I took Zovran and Meclizine, my one-two punch of drugs to minimize the effects of my Meniere's disease. (Speaking of which, 2 weeks ago, I had a whopper Meniere's attack and had Skip call 911 to have an ambulance take me to the ER. I couldn't stand a 10-hour attack of vertigo and vomiting with the ground heaving like I was on a ship in a choppy sea. The EMT gave me Zovran and, voila, the nausea stopped! I'd never had Zovran before, but you better believe I got a prescription for it the day after my ER visit.)

So, the stress of pre-storm worry and today's waiting out the storm has taken its toll and I'm feeling pooped. Skip's already in bed. I just have to finish the dishes and take the dogs out then I, too, shall head to bed. When I wake up tomorrow, I hope for continued electricity and a return to normal air pressure. 

Hope you are all safe and snuggled in your homes tonight!

Out and About With Skip

For those of you who don't live in New England, you may not be aware that we're having the freakiest week of March weather ever in these parts. Continuing the trend of mild weather we had all winter, March has been very warm, with temps in the 70s on Wednesday. Thursday is forecast to hit the mid 80s, over 10 degrees above the previous record high.

Skip and I had to take advantage of this weather, and get her out and about. Sadly, she has not been out with me in the car since dinner with friends on January 12th, the night before her flap surgery. The other day, she made a foray out onto the patio for a bit of fresh air and sun. Besides that, she's been truly housebound this winter.

We had planned to take in a movie, but there really wasn't one thing showing at nearby theaters that interested us. So, a late lunch out at Legal Seafoods was followed by a drive around to two 55+ condo communities that I wanted to see.

Legal Seafoods is a chain that started as a fish market then single restaurant in Cambridge, Mass about 50 years ago. Now, they're a chain that, I believe, has locations up and down the eastern seaboard. It's our favorite place for fish and Skip was hankering for one of their lobster rolls. We got there around 3. Our waiter greeted us warmly. He's seen us every few months for a meal there for years and years. Skip got her lobster roll and I decided to try a crab roll. I'm too embarrassed to list all the sides we had. Suffice it say it was a feast!

Eating out at off hours is good for us. Skip's hands are so weak now that, even with her specially adapted silverware, she can really struggle eating. What often happens is she'll start off eating on her own but as the meal progresses that becomes harder and harder as her hand gets weaker. I eat faster than she does, so when I'm done with my own meal, I take over and feed her. A quiet restaurant with only a few other patrons is a much easier setting for Skip as she's embarrassed by having someone else feed her. I say, screw it, don't worry about the other folks, but of course I have no idea how I'd feel were I the one in her shoes.

After rolling out of Legal's, we went off to scout out two condo communities that are limited to 55+ and have units for sale in our price range. The first consists of 150 2-story townhouses that are built out in little clusters of 8-10 units per street. In the listings online, they show a second story, but the units only have a very large loft room there, both bedrooms are located on the first floor. This community is appealing because it's in our preferred area and the housing stock consists of townhouses, but all the units are larger than I'd like - in the 1700-1800 sq ft range. I am more interested in 1100-1200 sq ft. At that size, though, the units you find are typically more like apartments in mid-rise buildings. Which, coincidentally, was the configuration of the other condo community we drove by.

Driving through the first community, I tried not to sing "Little Boxes," by Malvina Reynolds. The chorus goes something like, "Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes made of ticky tacky, little boxes made of ticky tacky and they all look just the same ...." All the houses were all tan, some had two garages, some had one. Some had walk out basements if they were built on a slope, some did not. But, they all looked virtually the same. I could live with that, though I'd prefer a bit of individuality. What surprised me a bit was that each entry had 2 steps up to a small landing and then a step up from there into the house. Aren't these places built for old folks with limited mobility? It makes me wonder if there are steps from the garage into the house. And, is a single car garage wide enough for us to lower the ramp out the side in The Toaster and for Skip to wheel in and out of the car? These and other questions will be answered when my realtors and I go for a tour of some units there

We then drove over to the other community, which has a couple of units available now at the bottom of our price rangeThis place is a recently built 3 story building with about 20 units. It looked nice, with a low row of garages across the street from it. Behind the building looks treed, and there's water in the name of the place, so maybe there are walking trails by a river there. It's surrounded by townhomes that I expect are also 55+ but are probably outside of our price range. Also, they looked to have the bedrooms on the second floor, which is clearly an impossible setup for us. Also in this complex, there's an "Inn." Inn is a euphemism for an assisted living place with an Alzheimer's unit attached. I was offended that they couldn't be more honest in their naming.

As I drove home, I mused over the possibility of staying in our current home. That says to me neither community, from the outside, knocked my socks off. I really hope those little houses on the hillside knock them off when I get to see their insides.

One other thing I was musing about on the drive home. The weather felt like early summer, but it's just the second day of spring and there isn't a leaf on a tree anywhere. It's a very strange combination to have: this wonderful balmy weather without the usual green leafy trees and bright green yards everywhere.

I'm glad Skip and I got to spend time out together. Great meal. Good data gathering. It's nice to see her getting back to a bit of normalcy. Now, if only a good movie hits the big screen, we can head out to a weekday matinee.

I Got Carded and Other Recent Activities

The last time anyone asked me for ID to prove my age was in my early 30s and a waitress asked to see my license before she'd serve me a beer. I was quite happy to show her how old I was and she seemed a bit sheepish when she realized I was many years past 21. Wednesday, I went with my two realtors to a 55+ condo community to look at some units. The realtor from the listing side didn't believe I was 55 and insisted I show him my license before we started looking around. He was very surprised that I actually was 55. That was fun! Unfortunately, they allow only one pet per unit, so we won't be looking at that development anymore.

It was good to get a view at what 1100 square feet looks like. Oh man, I've got a lot more clean out to do in the garage. The kitchens in those units didn't have much storage, so if we move into a similar kind of space, we'll have a lot more purging to do. For example, we have a few hundred cookbooks that fill one entire set of shelves in the kitchen. Those'll mostly have to go. Of course, I don't really use cookbooks; they are all either from my mother (who left them behind when moving out 23 years ago) or from Skip, who used to be a chef and continued to buy cookbooks for years, even after she'd stopped cooking.

On Tuesday, I went to 3 storage auctions. Bid on a number of units but wasn't willing to go as high on each as other bidders, often by a significant margin. The first auction had 40 attendees and 5 units available. I'd say the crowds were of similar size for the other two and, coincidentally, there were 5 units at each of those as well. The last unit I bid on was the one I wanted most. It was mostly filled with older, wooden furniture. Hanging from pegs on the ceiling were 7 chairs for the kitchen or dining room. Smack dab in the center was a treadle sewing machine. I still have the treadle machine we got last summer at an auction although it was on Craigslist for months and is now in the furniture booth we have in central Mass, so was a bit concerned about the ability to move this one. I figured $300 would be a good price for the unit. The other bidder countered me on every bid and I finally gave up at $500. I couldn't rationalize that I'd make even that on the furniture and I would have other costs as well, including the effort of the guys who'd clear out the heavy stuff.

Ideally, to determine my max bid, I estimate the value of everything I can see and divide it in half. That mode doesn't work very well when most things are in boxes or the unit is very deep and you can only see a small fraction of the stuff. Then, you have to get clues from the way things are packed and cared for and the type of stuff you can see. I am tired of going to auctions and getting nothing, though. Sooner or later, I'm just going to go for the gusto and buy something even if I think it's overpriced.

On Thursday, I got a handyman over to give me a quote on the bits and pieces of work that needs to be done. He brought along a colleague who paints. Their prices were excellent! The repairs and painting begin on Sunday. They're going to paint all of downstairs, the upstairs bathroom, 2 exterior doors, 2 garage door and stain the low fence that surrounds the yard. Whoopee! All the repair and paint work should be completed by mid-week.

On that same Thursday, my brother and the two guys who helped with my mother's move came over to do a variety of projects. They took the entertainment center, a glass front cabinet and a grandfather's clock along with a bunch of boxes over to storage. This really cleared up a lot of space in the living room and dining room, so they look bigger. While my brother and one of the guys worked on building a window well cover, BW (who is a really really hard worker) took it upon himself to organize and clean up the garage. That night, for the first time in 9 months, I pulled The Toaster (aka the Honda Element) into the garage!

Shortly, I'll be leaving the house for a day trip back to Foxwoods. Had so much fun 3 weeks ago, I've decided to go back. And, to make the trip more interesting and fun, I'll be meeting up with 2 folks I've met through blogging, Very Josie and the Crafty Southpaw (both their blogs are on my blogroll to the right).

One final note: I had to put word verification back on because I was getting a ton of spam comments. I figured word verification was the lesser of two evils; the other being not allowing anonymous comments.

Skipping Out and About

Yesterday was a milestone day for Skip, as it was her first time out of the house for something other than a doctor's appointment since getting home on January 14th. As you can see from the photo below, she was long overdue for a haircut.

After the haircut, we had some extra time before Skip's aide was due at the house. Skip felt good and the weather was sunny and warm, a wonderful early spring day. So, we headed off to a spot we used to love going to for breakfast, hoping they'd still be serving it at mid-afternoon. Fortunately, they were and Skip had a version of eggs benedict and I had poached eggs on hash. It was so great to be at a restaurant and look across the table to see Skip. That hadn't happened in far too long.

The only sad moment of the trip was coming home and being greeted by only one pup. Ruby was happy to see us, but we miss the jumping and exuberance of the lovely, departed Sally. I was probably projecting my own feelings on Ruby, but she did seem a bit subdued and sad when I let her out of the crate she and Sally shared when we left them home alone.

Skip's a good sport to have let me take this photo!

We're ready to head out to the hairdressers ...

Ruby taking it all in from the vantage of Skip's vacated bed

I took this photo to show Skip's newly shorn head, not realizing the shadow obscured the 'do. D'oh!

Order placed, just waiting for the eggs benedict

Two Thanksgivings

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It has all the good feelings and visiting with family and friends that Christmas has, but doesn't have the craziness of shopping, wrapping and money spend that goes with Christmas.

Skip and I have hosted our fair share of Thanksgiving dinners, including a number with both her parents and mine in attendance. The days where we hosted are long gone, though, and we have benefited from the generosity of family and friends for many years.

This year, we went to Thanksgiving at the home of our friends D&D. They are famous for their dinners and parties for friends and family, and deservedly so. One of them used to be a chef and we first met them by having dinner at the restaurant they owned. There were 15 of us at dinner. Family for both D's and friends gathered at a table set with wonderful, traditional stuff ... turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, mashed butternut squash, warm rolls, cranberry sauce, roasted brussels sprouts (these were a revelation as I'd never had them roasted before).

We ate well, watched football, had a chance to visit with folks and really enjoyed ourselves. Skip was up and in her wheelchair for longer than she has been of late, and she tolerated it well.

The plan had been for me to cook a turkey and fixings on Friday so we'd have leftovers, since what is Thanksgiving without them? D&D had a ton of food left, including a second turkey that hadn't even been cut into for dinner, and loaded us down with a bit of everything. I reheated it all on Friday evening and we enjoyed it immensely. Our turkey went into the freezer for some weekend during the winter when roast turkey followed by turkey soup and turkey tetrazini will be quite welcome.

My parents saw my sister and her husband and four boys on Thanksgiving day, so they invited my brother, his wife and three kids and Skip and me for yesterday, Saturday, at their house on Cape Cod. My dad's aide would do all the cooking and cleanup so we could even be lazy to boot. With her wound, Skip wasn't up to the trip (four hours of jostling in the car over the round trip was especially a concern). I waited around at home until 3pm for the nurse to come and change Skip's packing and bandage, then got her up and in the chair and headed down to the Cape. Fortunately for me, dinner was scheduled for 6pm because my nephew had to work and wouldn't arrive until 5:30. I got to my parents' house about 10 minutes before he did.

We sat down to a lovely dinner of boneless rib roast, scalloped potatoes, broccoli with aioli sauce, creamed onions (one of my mother's specialties) and fruited breads my sister-in-law made. My brother's kids are all in their 20s and have turned into great young adults. I am not so comfortable with kids and never really knew what to say to them or my sister's kids when they were young. Now, they're of an age where I find it much easier to chat with them and, I'm sure, they're more comfortable talking with me.  I didn't get much chance to chat with my parents on this visit, but I know they were very happy to see us all together, breaking bread and having lively conversations.

And, the entire group, with my sister's family added in, is getting back together the Saturday after Christmas at my parents' house. I'm very much hoping Skip will be up to that trip. And, if she comes, we'll bring the pups along, too. They'll get serious loving from all my nieces and nephews.

On Then Off

The box containing the wound vacuum and supplies arrived on Tuesday morning. Tuesday afternoon, the wound nurse installed it. It worked fine, suctioning and burbling through the night. On a lift Wednesday morning, the vacuum seal was broken. Unfortunately, before I could reseal it with fresh adhesive, the black sponge inside the wound unraveled and fell out.

The wound nurse said she'd come over on Wednesday afternoon to insert a new sponge and get the vac going again. Unfortunately, when she came to look at it, her assessment was there was too much slough in the wound to use the vac. Apparently, you shouldn't use it if the wound's surface has too much slough and Skip's wound didn't pass the test.

So, she put in some Aquacell AG for overnight. Today, Thanksgiving, she came in the late morning (even though she isn't working today!) and changed the dressing. She was very pleased with the results of the Aquacell AG overnight and expects we'll keep using that until the next steps are worked out with Skip's MD.

At this point the nurse will communicate with the plastic surgeon we're working with at the Wound Care Center to see if Skip should go in for surgery to be debrided so the vac can start back up as soon as possible.

Skip's physical therapist is recommending a specialized hospital bed that promotes circulation and requires Skip to stay in it virtually all day. Not sure when that will happen, but we're talking about taking the queen-sized platform bed out of the bedroom and replacing it with the hospital bed and a twin for me. This way, we can continue to sleep together but Skip can benefit from the therapeutic features of the hospital bed.

We're hoping the bed option gels together much faster than the wheelchair did. The wheelchair took over one year from point of selection to delivery.

Oh, and, Happy Thanksgiving, my American friends!

On the Brink of Vacuuming

I thought about the title of this post and thought things like "update on the wound" and "wound status" probably wouldn't be too enticing in the blogrolls of my fellow bloggers where I'm listed. Better to tease the potential reader with the title above.

Anyway, now that you're here... I'm back in the blog world with an update on Skip's wound.

We went on 4 successive Thursdays to the local wound clinic for debriding by a plastic surgeon. This is the process of removing slough and necrotic (aka dead) tissue from the wound to leave a nice, healthy wound bed, providing a good site for healing (FYI - do NOT go to Wikipedia to look up the definition of debriding unless you have a strong stomach. The photo accompanying the article is gruesome.). The second visit wasn't the most fruitful debridement because Skip's blood sugar was out of control (she has Type II diabetes) and they were very restrained as a result. They also sent us off to the Emergency Room after the appointment. Fortunately, Skip's blood sugar was returning back to normal in the ER so nothing further was required; we still have no idea why it was so high that day as the problem has not recurred, fortunately. The 3rd and 4th visits were very effective and the surgeon announced last Thursday that we could begin the vacuum wound treatments.

The device arrives tomorrow morning and the wound nurse and the nurse in charge of Skip's case are coming for the initial setup. From there on, nurses will come and change the sponge in the vacuum 3 times a week. We'll still need to visit the wound center every other week for a while for a check-in on progress and such. The projected time for healing is 4-6 months. Yikes!

Now that we're transitioning into the healing stage for the wound, the next thing to work on is Skip's environment to ensure such a horrible thing as this monster wound never occurs again. A Roho cushion for her wheelchair has been held up because the company that sourced her power chair are having issues getting Medicare to pony up the $24,000 for the chair and won't get the cushion until that's resolved. I'm not quite sure what the status is on the bed air mattress. We'll check in on that when the nurses come tomorrow. In the meantime, Skip is sleeping on her side (she's been sleeping on her back for years) and is spending afternoons when her aide isn't here lying down. She's changing her position through tilt and recline on her chair throughout the day.

I just checked in with Skip. The pain today is "so-so." Some days it spikes way up, some days it's moderate, but it never seems to go away. I'm looking forward to a pain-free day for Skip.

Visit to the Wound Clinic

With Skip's wound not responding well to the treatment prescribed by the wound nurse, we had to pick up things up a bit. We'd resisted going to see a wound doctor because we had no way of getting Skip up onto a table for an examination and treatment. Skip's wound nurse had worked at a different wound clinic at another local hospital and knew there was a setup there for Skip to get on a stretcher and be cared for. So, she arranged for an appointment there on Thursday.

The atmosphere right from when we walked in was very different from what I'd experienced at other clinics, which were always professional, but never warm. Right from the start, everyone was warm and friendly ... from the receptionist to the intake nurse to the wound nurses to the doctor himself, it was a great team. The intake nurse had an excellent means of transferring Skip from her chair to the treatment table using a sheet until Skip's knees and a bit of strength from the nurse and me.

The wound nurse gave us some disturbing news when she measured the wound. She let us know it was 3.8 cm deep. Yikes!

The doctor came in and debrided the wound. We have to go back next week for another round of debridement, with the application of an ointment that will continue the cleanout in between. Once the wound is prepped for healing, he told us they'd use a vacuum approach to promote healing. On Friday, when the visiting nurse came to change the bandage, she was pleased to hear about the vacuum approach since she'd seen great results with that with another client.

I was very concerned about the wound prior to the clinic visit. I'm still concerned but also optimistic about the prospects now that we've got the clinic folks engaged.

October is Birthday Month ...

... in my family. Today is my Dad's 84th, two weeks ago, my mother turned 81. My brother (who's been spending a lot of time here lately doing home projects) hit 57 early in the month. (My sister and I have July birthdays.)

The proximity of my parents' birthdays to one another led to a wonderful family tradition that went on for 10 or 15 years (traveling up for the get together is a bit too much for my dad now). Sometime each October, the whole family would congregate for dinner in a private room at a local historic inn. This included my parents, Skip and me, my sister, her husband and 4 boys and my brother, his wife and 3 kids. After dinner and coffee, every one in the family would talk about his or her year.

I loved the stories from my nieces and nephews. We'd hear about sports, school, boy scouts, travel. Year over year, it was interesting to see how they grew both in the nature of what they reported and their ways of reporting.

I liked the adults' stories, too. One year, my brother-in-law spoke very movingly of the death of his father earlier that year and how that experience added insight into his relationship with his sons. Even the occasional guest was expected to join in the storytelling. My mother has a very warm spot in her heart for one of Skip's brothers who spoke very movingly about our relationship and my care for Skip during our civil union ceremony in Vermont in 2001. Ever since, he was a perennial invitee to the party and always gave his updates when his turn came.

On Wednesday, I'm heading to the Cape to join my father in a meeting. Afterwards, we'll head back to their house to join my mom for a nice dinner. I'll love seeing them and enjoying their company, but this write-up is making me long for a full-out family gathering to hear the year's stories from all the generations.

The Front Walk is Done

It's actually been done for about a week, but I haven't gotten around to posting photos. We're delighted with the results. We still have some other work in the front yard, including replacing the lights and modifying the gutters, but this is a huge improvement.

One thing I've realized over the last few weeks, with this work and the work my brother is doing, that home improvement projects I do aren't the only ones that spawn other work. I think it may be that almost ALL of them do! That's been a good thing for me to realize. These follow-on projects aren't due to my incompetence as a home improver, but they are actually quite typical for any home projects.

Anyway ... on with the pics. Before ....

And, ta-da, AFTER!

After the leaves and needles are done falling and then are all cleaned up, we'll put some mulch around the perimeter of the wall to cover the raw earth. (Yet another project spawned by this one. :-) )

Bells are Ringing in My Ears

I don't often talk about any maladies that effect me, but today I want to talk about my ears. They ring.

I know they've been ringing for over 30 years because I clearly remember speaking to a doctor about them when I was 21 or 22. In my late 20s, the ringing was accompanied by loss of hearing in my left ear such that if I was speaking on the phone with the handset to my right ear, I had little awareness of ambient noise in the room. And what I could hear in my left ear was blurry.

The partial deafness and working in a good job with medical benefits prompted my first significant exploration into my ear problems. I went to Mass Eye and Ear, a part of Mass General Hospital, and had all sorts of tests. These essentially determined there was no clearly definable reason for the deafness or the tinnitus.

The hearing loss in the left has come and gone over the years. I have learned to accomodate it by strategic seating in settings where I'm in a group, such as large, in-person meetings and restaurants with a group of friends.

In my mid-30s, vertigo joined in the fun, so I now had a trio of ear issues. This led to the identification of Meuniere's disease as a likely culprit of these issues. My father has Meuniere's, though he hasn't had any vertigo attacks in 15 years or more. (This is lucky for him since his mobility is now impaired by Parkinson's.)

The hearing loss is always there to some degree, the vertigo is a very infrequent visitor, but the tinnitus is always with me. I'm writing about it now because it's really spiked up over the last week or so. Over the years, the loudness and the tone have varied significantly, even varying by ear. With the recent increase in volume, I now have a pulsing, high-pitched ringing shriek localized slightly to the left of center in my head. This is also accompanied by distinct ringing sounds located directly in my ears. When the house is wonderfully quiet in the mornings, like right now, it's presence occupies a fair portion of my consciousness; later in the day, when the activity level and noise increases, competing with the tinnitus, it will fade into the background.

In addition to all of this in the present day, I look at my dad and worry about the future of my ears. He is 84 and has two hearing aids, having worn them for at least a decade. Despite this, he needs to be spoken to in a fairly loud voice and dialogue often needs repeating. I suspect this is in store for me. D'oh!

More Maintenance ... On to the Front Walk

The front walk consists (or, actually, consisted) of cement blocks about 3' X 5'. It's 30' long. The blocks were poured by my father about 40 years ago, with help from a friend and my brother. Over the years, they've moved slightly, sunk a bit in a few places and the wood shims between then has rotted away in some places. The yard has been steadily encroaching on the edges of the cenent blocks. All in all, the thing looked crappy.

We decided to take the leap and have the walk rebuilt. We'd get to raise it up slightly to stop the water pooling, put a short wall along the edge to ensure no further encroachment of the yard and improve the look overall.

The first guy who came to give us an estimate is the brother of the woman who cuts Skip's hair. He is semi-retired, had lots of great photos of work he'd done and gave me an estimate for the work that made my hair stand up. We mulled that over for a while ... could this really be what the walk rebuilding would cost? So, then we called the guy who'd repointed the chimney last year, who'd built some walks for some friends, and he gave us a quote 25% lower than the first guy. Bingo! We were in business.

He came on Saturday, with a crew of two guys, and they made huge progress. Unfortunately, they ran out of bricks and, with the Columbus Day holiday, the store that sold them to the mason won't reopen until Tuesday. So, they did a little bit of work on Sunday, but are now just waiting for more materials to finish the job. We're anxiously awaiting their return so we can see the outcome!

On Saturday morning, the first thing they did was to break up the cement blocks. They did this by levering one up with a pry bar, then the other guy slammed down a sledghammer to break it. Wow, brute strength!

The work in progress is looking great so far!

Leaf Peeping

Skip, the two pups and I went to our favorite spot for fall foliage viewing today. It's a cemetery in a nearby town that is filled with maples, especially red maples. We decided to head over there today to gawk at the great red maples in all their glory.

The trip wasn't entirely successful. First, we went to a seasonal ice cream/clam shack restaurant that we like to take in here and there in the warm weather. At the tail end of the season, they are open only on weekends, so we thought they'd still be open. Unfortunately, the sign that greeted us said "closed for the season." We decided to postpone eating until after we went to the graveyard as we didn't have a clue what we wanted to eat as an alternative (I'd been thinking fondly of friend clams, clams with bellies, not the strips). At the cemetery, we found lots of color, but mostly yellows ... the big red maples hadn't turned yet.

Nonetheless, we enjoyed our drive through the cemetery. Skip likes to check out the gravestones, I was focused more on the foliage. The weather was mild and the sky was a clear, beautiful blue.

While we drove around, we decided to get Thai food and bring it home to eat. Unfortunately, the place we called was closed as we were between the lunch and dinner hours. Oy! Well ... we ended up with Chinese, which Skip loves.

Driving to Cape Cod

Today was one of my semi-monthly day trips to Cape Cod to visit with my parents and give them a hand with the bills and their checkbook (though in all honesty my Dad handles 95% of the bills).

I enjoy visiting with my parents and the opportunity to help out. But I think the drive down to the Cape is very restorative for me. I get time alone, time when I listen to music and think. Over the last few trips, I've also started giving friends a call to chit chat, trying to be better about keeping in touch with them.

Shortly after I left the house, I made my first call, giving a ring to Skip's cousin JH. She's a lesbian, married to her partner of more than 30 years. JH's wife has COPD, is on oxygen all day, and the cousin is a full-time caregiver (they're both retired). I've recently started calling to check in and try and give support, as I know full well how difficult and challenging that role can be. And, I enjoy her sense of humor and perspective on things. Then I called the home of two friends of ours that used to live about a mile from us, with whom we once socialized 2-3 times a month, but they moved away about 5 years ago. Our contacts have really dropped off, yet we love them and I want us to stay in touch. We had a nice chat. Couldn't reach the other person I called. (In case you're thinking I was holding a phone and driving one-handed all this time, I do wear a wireless headset and all the calls are hands free.)

That killed almost half of the drive. Then, I fired up the Dixie Chicks and listened to them the rest of the way. I don't usually listen to Country music, but I really like the music and voices of the Chicks.

I realized while I was driving along that I was happy. Very happy. Looking forward to seeing my parents. Enjoying the lovely fall weather, and the fall foliage (nowhere near peak, but still some beautiful spots of orange, yellow and red). Confident that Skip was in the capable hands of MW, and that she would have a good day herself. Not really any particular reason for the happiness, but it felt great, almost euphoric.

I always enjoy the drive down to visit, but this was definitely one of the best. I hope I can recapture that feeling soon.

Diary of a Typical Day

What's a day like in my life? Well, today wasn't all that out of the ordinary for a work day ... balancing work and personal life stuff combined with visitors to the house. (Speaking of visitors, my brother mentioned to me that he was surprised at the amount of comings and goings with visitors to the house. Every day he was here over the last few weeks, at least one other person came to perform some service or another on behalf of Skip.)

Thus, my day in summary:

• Alarm went off at 5:30, I only hit the snooze once
• Got up at 5:40, took the pups out, gave them treats, ground beans, got the coffee brewing
• Settled in at the computer for personal fun, especially to have time to play the Facebook games I'm presently addicted to. When the coffee was ready, got a cup for myself.
• Around 7 or so, gave Skip her a.m. pills (I have them all set up in advance)
• At 7:30, moved into the kitchen to begin working as I had a call with my boss at 10:30 and wanted to get some stuff done before that call and get organized for the call itself
• At 8:40, got Skip up for her shower
• At 9:00, while helping Skip with post-shower stuff (hair maintenance and the like), got onto my first conference call of the day
• Between 9 and 11, worked. Occasionally helped Skip out in her morning routines. Somewhere in there I got dressed. Got load of yesterday's laundry folded and washed/dried sheets.
• Around 11 or so, my brother showed up to do some more work around the house. In particular, he worked on a balky silverware drawer, sealed a leak in the shower and examined a few downstairs doors that need replacing (measuring and the like).
• Between 11 and 12, got Skip her breakfast and then got her dressed, including cleaning and dressing her skin wounds that we're managing (they're definitely in the healing mode, but will take time to repair).
• 12:15 finally got around to having breakfast, my typical repast of high-fiber cereal, fresh fruit and 1% milk.
• It was a quiet day for conference calls, yay!
• At 1:15, the intrepid MW (Skip's aide) showed up and took Skip off in the car for a 1:45 podiatrist appointment. The pups, Ruby and Sally, would be unsettled and sad while Skip was gone, hanging out by the kitchen door, keeping their eye on the garage door, until their return.
• At 1:30, had a check-in with a team member to discuss her current projects and their status.
• At 2:45, the house cleaners arrived (they were 45 minutes late) for the every other week cleaning. This meant I needed to be careful to keep doors closed to minimize noise of the vacuum cleaner while on work calls.
• At 3:00, had a client call. It was scheduled for an hour, but all content was completed in 30 minutes, yay!
• Skip and MW got back around 3:30. Skip never even came in the house, but just went right to the patio so she and MW could have some cigars.
• At 4:00, got back on the phone with my boss, who'd had to cut the 10:30 call short due to an issue that came up while we were talking. He delegated to me an interesting project for a new service to deliver to our client.
• Started to wind down work-wise around 5. Got a call from someone at my client who wanted to talk billing and budgets until 5:30.
• As that call was wrapping up, the cleaners said goodbye (the house smells great when they're done!), my brother wrapped up for the day and Skip and MW came in so MW could start on dinner. She made grilled chicken with BBQ sauce, hash browns and a lovely salad. (It's so great to have someone else cook for you.)
• At 7, we ate dinner. I cleaned up.
• Checked in on some work stuff while I watched a bit of the LA Dodgers/St. Louis Cardinals baseball playoff game.
• Settled in on the couch around 8:30 to play a bit more of my addicting Facebook game. Turned on the Red Sox/LA Angels of Anaheim playoff game. Watching it now.
• Will go back out to the kitchen shortly to do a bit more work before I shut that computer down for the night. (This is one negative of working from home ... the office is never far away.)
• I expect we'll head in to bed around 11:30 or so.

And that's another typical day here at the Cranky and Skip house.

On To Pine Cones and Pine Needles

Acorns were falling in huge abundance a week or two ago. Today was very windy, and the pine needles fell like snow, the pine cones dive-bombed all around us. Sitting in the house today, we heard almost continuously all afternoon ... pow! pow! pow! as the pine cones hit the roof.

Our yard is pretty minimalist, meaning we have no grass and not much ground cover (that is, the yard is mostly dirt). The pine trees that surround the yard keep the grass from flourishing. We used to put down mulch every year but discovered that was raising the level of the yard and contributing to the water flooding problems we now have. So, we've left the yard "as is" ever since.

As a result, this time of year, when the pine needles have covered the yard, this is the time it looks best. We are thinking of doing more with the yard after the front walk is rebuilt, but that's still TBD. I bet a comprehensive planting of ground cover would cost a bundle, so we'll probably have to take it slow on that front.

Below is the view out the kitchen window and a few other views of the needles and cones. You can see our yard statuary ... two armadillos and a lion.

Fast Maintenance

When my brother showed up this morning to continue work on the first repair project, he had a surprise. His son was with him! It was a huge help to him to have my nephew on the job because 4' X 8' masonite sheets are a bit hard for one person to install. And, the same is true of 10' or 12' redwood siding. Together, they worked like a well-oiled machine and got the repair virtually completed this afternoon. All that remains will be to re-stain the wood, which won't get done until after the front walk is replaced (that work is scheduled to start Saturday). Yoohoo!

(Unfortunately, I forgot to snap a picture of the entryway with all siding back in place. But, man, it looks good!)

A Lovely Change of Pace

Last Saturday afternoon, Skip and I drove up to coastal New Hampshire (there's a little tiny piece of Atlantic Ocean coastline in New Hampshire, shoehorned in between Massachusetts and Maine). We went to visit a friend of ours, C. We got to know C over the years when we visited at the home of a friend in common. We like her and enjoyed her company but never socialized with her except at our friends' house.

Then, she came to Maine on our 2 week vacation in July. We got to know her much better and our friendship grew. We really enjoyed her company, her perspective on things and her sense of humor.

The second to last day of our vacation, she spent a good part of the day in the emergency room of the local hospital because of a killer headache. Even with an MRI (I believe an MRI was taken rather than a CT Scan, but I could be wrong), the ER docs couldn't identify the root cause, so they told C it was the result of a sinus problem and sent her off with some prescriptions. The day after she got home from Maine, she had a stroke!

She spent about a week in the hospital. After going home, she had lots of therapy and nursing visits to help her get back to the point where she could walk steadily, think clearly, drive safely and get back to work. She is doing all those things now, though transitioning back slowly into work. She also says her short-term memory is a bit dicey.

We wanted to see her, to see how she was doing, get some time enjoying her company, and take her out for dinner. C suggested if the weather was good, we could go down to Hampton Beach and walk along the sea wall, which is accessible. Skip loves the beach and this sounded like a lovely idea. So, we drove up on Saturday afternoon.

It was a cool, early fall day in New England. The trees were already turning a bit, though the fall foliage wasn't yet at peak. We picked C up at her apartment and drove the 5 or 10 minutes over to Hampton Beach. I'm sure the place is hopping in the summer; on this cool day, it had plenty of folks, but the beach was virtually empty. All of us were up walking the sea wall or browsing the shops that were still open (many were closed for the season).

The sky was a clear blue. The sea below it a beautiful, dark blue. Lots of breakers at the shore. Light sea breezes that were cool but not uncomfortably so, since we all wore light jackets and baseball caps. We walked for a bit, chatting and enjoying the sites. Skip was feeling a bit weak, so we took a break with a late lunch/early dinner at an informal cafe across from the sea wall.

As we headed back to C's home, we took a roundabout route so C could show us a bit of the area. We got talking about apple picking and she ended up taking us over to a nearby orchard that was known for their pies as well as their apples. By chance, we arrived at the tail end of a harvest festival and the place was jammed. We would have loved a taste of cider donuts (if you've never had a cider donut, you are missing a great seasonal treat that Skip and I love) but the line was about 100 deep (not a huge exaggeration). Instead, we picked out some Macoun apples (another favorite of ours, a variety that's typically only available at orchards and not in supermarkets), cider and a few other goodies to bring home.

We took C back to her home and drove the hour plus back home in the fading light (don't you hate how early it gets dark as the year progresses?). Of course, the pups were delighted to see us (Skip's aide, MW had watched them for us), which always makes for a wonderful homecoming.

We've been enjoying those Macouns. And, while writing this, I polished off a cold glass of cider.

It was great to visit with C. To see that she's well on the mend. And, best of all, to enjoy her company taking in the beach at Hampton. I hope we do it again soon (before the weather gets too cold).

Another Lovely Early Evening

I don't know if this happens to you, but when I plan to recreate a wonderful time that happened spontaneously, it often doesn't work out as well. Fortunately, recreating our Friday early evening on Sunday evening worked out just beautifully.

Skip has a new physical therapist, who was coming at 4pm on Sunday to show us some range of motion exercises for Skip's shoulders. I suggested we head out to the patio as soon as she was done. Skip thought it was a great idea.

It was another unseasonably cool day here yesterday, so perfect for sitting outside. In fact, we kept the doors open all day and the a/c never came on as the outside temps were so low (70ish F).

We got outside around 5, Skip had a few cigars (small ones), the pups lazed at our feet on their big bed and I read aloud from Harold Kushner's book. Around 7, we all trooped back in the house and I made a simple dinner of grilled chicken thighs, garlic ciabatta bread and salad.

Great conclusion to a wonderful weekend.

A Lovely Early Evening

Today was a quiet work day. Lots of folks on vacation, not a lot of email traffic, no big issues needing fast resolution. I stopped right about 5pm and went into the living room to begin the weekend. It had been a beautiful, cool day, weather-wise, and I thought Skip might want to go out for a cigar, so I asked if she'd like to go out. She was surprised and delighted at the offer.

I grabbed her cigars and paraphenalia (lighter, cutter, ashtray) and we headed out to the patio. We have a big dog bed for the pups to use on the patio and I set it up at Skip's feet. I got her cigar lit and the dogs and I settled in with her for a bit of relaxation.

We sat under the gazebo enjoying the time together. Lovely temp (well, I thought it was a bit cool, but it was great for Skip). Birds chirping, red squirrel nearby scolding. We live in a quiet neighborhood, so not much noise from the street or nearby houses to intrude.

During vacation, I'd started reading a new book that I thought Skip would enjoy as well, Harold Kushner's Overcoming Life's Disappointments. I was reading it aloud to her at bedtime on vacation but we hadn't yet finished it. While we sat on the patio, I read her another chapter. I enjoy reading aloud, I love Harold Kushner books and this book is definitely one with plenty of interesting content for both of us.

We only sat out for an hour or so, but it was lovely and relaxing. A wonderful way to start the weekend.