Cattitude is everything. |
Mer Murdock April 23 - Earlier today I cleaned and rearranged my room, and Charlie stayed with me the whole time. He appointed himself chief inspector, and checked everything I moved, and the empty spots they came from! After I finished, he jumped on the bed, chose a spot up by the pillows, and laid back purring. I guess I passed the inspection. |
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Claudia Lindsey March 25, 2009 - Because of ongoing knee problems I won't be able to make the Howlett Family Reunion this year. I was really looking forward to seeing all of you again. I went to my Doctor a couple of weeks after returning from our vacation in Florida in January, to see what was the matter with my right knee. I could barely walk as the pain was excruciating. He took x-rays which only showed a lot of Arthritis, which had worn away a lot of the back of the knee cap. He then sent me for an emergency ultrasound to rule out the possibility of a blood clot, because of cramped seats on the plane ride coming home. No blood clot was found but they did find a Baker's Cyst behind the knee. Next came an MRI, which showed a torn Meniscus. The Meniscus is torn horizontally (not vertically like they usually are). Then it was on to the Orthopedic Surgeon to see what to do next. They are putting off surgery as long as possible to try to strength the knee. I was given a Cortisone shot and tomorrow I start Physical Therapy. The left knee is also getting stiff so they are going to do physical therapy on that knee as well, to try to loosen it up. The Cortisone shot did help and when I go back in April, they will either give me another Cortisone shot and more physical therapy or decide to do surgery. They haven't mentioned knee replacement yet, but it could be down the road. Take care all and eat lots of ribs. |
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Nancy Murdock 3/11/09 To prepare for the new year, we went about our regular evening reading, chatting, eating, etc. No alcohol. No naughty foods. We didn’t even stay up late. It was “Ho hum, another year has ended.” On January 1, I woke up at my usual time of 6:30 and got out of bed to head for the bathroom. As soon as I touched the floor, I lost my equilibrium and became aware of a terrific pain down my back, starting at the middle of the bottom of my skull, and ending about at my waistline. My right ear was not stabilizing. Wow! Not a great way to start a new day, much less a new year. It continued enough that I made an appointment with Dr. Park, my G.P. On the off chance that it might be serious, she had me hooked up to some machines for testing. After an examination, she sent me home with some pills, an inhaler, and instructions that included not to drive for the three weeks I was undergoing treatment, in case I turned my head suddenly and lost track of what I was doing. At about 9:15 PM on January 3, Bob ran to the bathroom and came out after a while, pale and nervous. He had been hit with both vomiting and diarrhea at the same time. He’d had to clean the walls and floor. He put a batch of stuff into plastic basins and used one basin with water and detergent to take the fuzzy pink carpet out to the porch. After several days of soaking things, he finally got all of the resulting laundry done, except for the carpet, which got cleaned a month later. But meanwhile, he was truly miserable. We got lucky when we called Kaiser for advice. As we expected, the advice nurse said it was Stomach Flu, which was hitting older people very hard. She told us he would be better off staying home, instead of sitting with others at Kaiser, all hitched up to IVs to counter dehydration. She told us to give him a tablespoon of water or chamomile tea, which he should sip from the spoon - slowly. No drinking it down from a cup. His foods were extremely limited. He could have dry crackers or similar items, so over the course of a couple of days, he bought such exciting items as slender breadsticks, rice cakes, and cornmeal (to make mush). But he did start to revive. I watched the time carefully, as he was to make the time between tablespoons of liquid be 15 minutes. I had bought a very nicely shaped tablespoon on our trip to Williamsburg, and it worked great! The newspaper had an article that said it wasn’t flu, because it didn’t affect the lungs. It was a Norovirus, sometimes called the Cruise Ship Sickness. Three days from the time Bob came down sick, I had a good choir rehearsal and was feeling fine when I got home shortly after 9:00 PM. At almost the exact time Bob had endured his first episode on the other day, it hit me. I went through total humiliation and misery. I hope I NEVER have to go through that Norovirus again. It took about a month before we felt really good, but I did go back to work after about a week. When I felt miserable, I just called in sick, which I think was a good move, as I had plenty of saved-up sick leave and did revive somewhat with the aid of a batch of Harlequin romance novels. So - the long and short of it is that the year 2009 was about two months old before we trusted it enough to try certain foods and dare to be around other people who hadn’t already succumbed to and recovered from that nasty virus. The idea of getting this on a cruise ship is horrendous! Can you imagine making your beautiful plans, saving up the money, and finding a few days after boarding that you and the majority of the other passengers were trapped in an enclosed area out in the middle of the ocean, in total misery because of the Norovirus? Exploding with germs and even worse items all over one’s own bathroom is bad enough. I wouldn’t want to go public with it! We’re fine now, but Bob says it’s time to figure what to do with the strange foods we picked up at the Time of Misery. I did get an idea for the cornmeal from a choir member. Karen made some GREAT pancakes for Mardi Gras supper, and she said she replaced half of the flour with cornmeal. She said it makes the pancakes lighter. Some people are so inventive! After we got back on our feet again, we got a notice that the exterminators would be coming around on a certain day. They listed a lot of things we had to do ahead of time, including not leaving papers, boxes, and fabric items on the floor, cleaning under both sinks, etc. Failure to comply would mean we’d have to pay $185. Working hard, we did manage to meet all the requirements. Bob spent a lot of time and energy clearing out the crafts room. The inspector left a note: “kitchen OK, bathroom OK.. “ We still don’t have the items from the crafts room off the living room couch, etc., where we were told we could leave stuff. We also had some really nasty weather in the first two months of this year. One day it was so bad that we expected a late opening for work. However, that didn’t happen, and I didn’t dare to go walking around in that snow and ice. So I used a lot of annual leave before I dared attempt to walk around in the parking lots. Then I ended up in the farthest corner of the farthest lot, so I was really glad I had waited a couple of days to try it out. I shuffled very slowly into the building and breathed a sigh of relief that my knee was still working when I arrived inside. The only good thing that came out of that very wintry weather was a couple of poems. |
Rhine Tower, Dusseldorf |
Colleen McKay January 1 is a Holy Day which means I am obligated to attend Mass. I was going to Mass at William of York at 9:00 am. I was at work printing my boarding pass for my 1:45 pm flight to Dusseldorf via Atlanta. As I turned on Edmondson Ave to go in the parking lot I panicked since there were no cars. I decided to go up the street to St. Agnes which I thought was Catholic. I was stuck at a very long light to turn left. That parking lot was filled. I was only a few minutes late. It was a Catholic church. I went home to change out of my dress and heels into traveling slacks and boots because it would be cold in Dusseldorf. I had a fairly long layover in Atlanta. I went into the Crown Room (Delta lounge) to check on my flight and get snacks. I asked the agent how full was my flight and what it would cost to upgrade to business. She said it would cost over $3200.00. I said well I am not paying that. When I finally to the gate boarding had started. My ticket had a problem. I said I had my passport info scanned at Baltimore. She said no you have a different seat. I knew that meant it was full in coach and I was being upgraded to business class for free. I gave her a piece of Dutch chocolate from my Rhine river cruise in December. My traveling guardian angel was with me. My new year was starting off well. The nice meal, the reclining seat for the overnight flight and breakfast before I landed meant a relaxing start to my trip. I had a slight glitch when I got to Dusseldorf. The tourist office was opening at 9:30am and I needed directions to find the hotel. I should have emailed for better directions. Being four hundred meters from the train station does not tell me what door to exit and which direction to walk. When I arrived at the hotel I politely asked if a room was ready since I knew check in was at 2:00 pm. My guardian angel was working overtime. I got to check in, go to my room, shower, then go out to play tourist. At the tourist office I bought a GO Dusseldorf card which was a three day transit pass and entrance to a few museums. There was a bit of snow on the ground and overcast. I hoped it would be clear on Saturday because the Rhein tower was shrouded in clouds. It would be no use to go to the observation floor at 168 meters high if all you could see were clouds. I did go to the Macy’s-like department store, Galleria. Chocolates in Christmas wrappings were half price. I found the plantation-grown chocolates. These are the ones that the chocolate comes from one area of the world. Concentration of cocoa ranges from 37% to 77%. Each concentration comes from a different area or plantation of the world. I like the 43% concentration best. Saturday was a sunny day. I walked over to the Rhein tower. I got my photos from the observation floor. The film museum had a display on Peter Ustinov. It had posters from his movies and about his work with UNICEF. I saw different things at the pottery museum then I had seen last year. Last time I did not go to the city museum. It had artifacts from over two thousands years of history since Dusseldorf had been an outpost of the Roman empire. It was very interesting. I went to Mass at St. Lambert in German. The Christmas creches were still up. I used the transit pass and would go until I saw a church and get off. I went into a few churches to take photos of the crčches. I especially liked the one with the German Shepherd dog in the scene. Sunday afternoon at the Aqua Zoo seem to be the family activity. It was more crowded this year when I went there last year. I found a display room of bugs that I missed last year. This time the Art in the Tunnel was opened. It was modern art taken to an extreme. It is a display of art students’ work. It was very different. Another museum that I am glad it was part of the transit pass. On Sunday as I was leaving a modern art museum I saw three children dress up as The Magi. One child was in black face. Another child was in mass server garb carrying a staff with a star, a young teenager with a piece of chalk and an adult completed the troop of people. I took pictures and asked what was going on. The adult explained they were from St. Lambert’s. On the Feast of the Magi the children paraded thru the businesses of the old town and collected money for poor children. The teenager would mark the door post of a business with the chalk. I followed them into one business, a little restaurant. The manager gave free soft drinks to the children, wine to the adult and offered me wine also. I declined since I don’t drink alcohol. I did accept a glass of water. I do not know how widespread in Europe this custom is because this was the first time I have been in Europe on the Sunday after New Year’s Day. Monday morning I awoke to a very strange view out the skylight. It was covered in snow. It had snowed during the night and was still lightly snowing. I walked to the corner to take the streetcar the 350 meters to the train station. The sidewalks had not been shoveled yet. I was able to catch a train to the airport. However the snow kept coming down. By the time I got to the airport it was closed due to the snow. The runaways needed to be cleared off. I did not care since I was in the lounge with free snacks and drinks. The plane coming from the USA making up our flight was diverted to Amsterdam because of the closure. It stopped snowing. The airport reopened. Our flight was scheduled to leave three hours late. The gate agent came into lounge looking for me because my seat had been changed to business class. I got home late but had a great time. |
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Valerie Davidson Thanks for the [telephone] birthday serenade! Very nice! I spent the afternoon with a friend at the San Jose Tech Museum. This is my "museum-going" friend - last week we toured San Juan Bautista (where "Vertigo" was filmed). It's quite a charming little town, with roosters roaming the streets. You can drive up into the hills and look down on the San Andreas Fault, which runs through the town... We also hiked through Muir Woods, choosing the "cathedral of the trees" for Easter Sunday. Now it's back to work Monday. Three more weeks of grad school and then I have the summer off. Completing these credits raises my total semester credits (beyond my B.A.) to 75! Not bad for someone who swore off school after the last final exam back in '75. BTW, does Colleen have a career that could be re-located to northern Michigan? I've often contemplated hauling a friend or two along if I retire elsewhere, have even discussed it non-seriously so far. :-) [Ed. note - No, Colleen will be heading for California. - RDM] I had a great b/d - best thing was that I've actually been saying I was 56 for several months now, so it was an especially smooth transition this year. |
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