melshutterbug

Last night I started watching a perfectly good show. It met all my criteria, people getting killed, pretty scenery, smart police, interesting outfits... A rich guy gets killed early on. But, does he? And is he really rich? There are all sorts of interesting characters and 3 seasons. And one fatal flaw. The part of the rich guy is played by Alec Baldwin. I have never liked anything he's ever been in. I don't like him. I don't like what I read about him. And I could not gin up the enthusiasm about whether the character he played lived or died or was right or not... simply because it's Alec Baldwin. Ha. My TV standards are weird.

And in other weirdness, I have a flashlight fetish. Especially flashlights that do other things. I own a million. You can hardly be anywhere in my apartment without being in arm's reach of some sort of flashlight. I do not need any more. Does that stop me? Nope.

I bought a pack of motion sensor lights - flashlights for when I walk by a wall. AND another 3 pack of night lights that plug into the wall and can also be motion sensor or not and also can charge up your cellphone and also can be flash lights!! I should take them all back. But, of course, I will not.

I did not vacuum the car. Maybe that's what I'll do tomorrow while the housecleaner cleans.

Volleyball this morning. There were a lot of people and I play on the edge so balls don't get to me frequently which is fine. Today, I spent all of my non-ball time doing various water aerobics. It was great. I did a lot of in place high knee kick marching and twisting and stretching. Made the whole thing more fun.

Elbow coffee was a small crowd. John and Hazel are getting older very quickly. They keep getting locked out of their apartment - forgetting or losing keys. Bonny took them down on Wednesday and they got two new keys. Yesterday morning, when I got back from the pool they were in the hallway waiting for security to let them in because they had forgotten their keys. Today they missed elbow coffee because they had a conference call - their credit union, their son and them. Because they say, the credit union keeps scamming them. The good news is that they are here and not out there on their own.

Biggie does NOT like the new treats. Not one bit. But they both like both the wet food and the dry.

I have a dead wifi spot in my bedroom and I have a wifi extender. I can see that the extender is improving the signal very much but I can't convince my phone to use the extended signal. This will be my project this aft.

Bonny's out of vodka so 'you want to make a Costco run on Monday?' Sure, says I. I'm very low on coffee.

And that's about it for the hot news here. We are, today, a dry day between rains. Still really grateful to live on a hill.

Timber Ridge - the place where I live - is in a small kind of bedroom community of Seattle called Issaquah. Issaquah has a population of about 40,000. It's been raining here in the Pacific Northwest. A lot. But, Timber Ridge is on a hill. And, yesterday, I went to the vet's and back and only saw large puddles.

But, last night, I was watching the national news on ABC when all of a sudden they were showing a national news guy standing in water reporting that Issaquah Creek (which runs through the town) had overflowed its banks and folks downtown had been asked to evacuate! Then I saw several photos of places very nearby that I know well that had replaced their parking lots with deep rushing water.

So wild to be so close and so surprised. I do feel isolated here in the cult but I thought that was my imagination. Turns out, nope.

Thinking back yesterday, the vet did ask me if I had had trouble getting there and I just kind of brushed it off as weird. Sorry, Dr. Vet.

So now I'm high and dry as usual but also way grateful.

Biggie seems fine. Normal. Yesterday morning when I got up, I gave him gabapentin which the vet techs really appreciate as he is not very fond of stuff they do to him. Usually, it just makes him a giant stuffy after about 2 hours and he stays that way for the rest of the day. Yesterday, he never really settled down. He was staggering when he walked so I know he had it in his system but he was feisty as ever and the tech did report he was not happy with their working on him. Last night all he wanted was to sit on my lap which is not handy or usual but fine. This morning he seems back to usual. And is still peeing just fine. And eating fine and now waiting for his morning Temptations. Sorry, buddy.

Chewy is being a little slow to fill the order for his new food and it's beginning to piss me off. They need approval from the vet which they got yesterday. And I uploaded again this morning. And still the order says 'pending approval'. Even if they ship it today and it arrives this weekend, it will still be Monday or Tuesday before it gets up here. Maybe I'll go back to the vets and buy some there to tide over. The problem is they only sell 7 lb bags of the kibble. I don't want to store that much. Plus I have 4 pounds being delivered from Chewy. Ok. am in chat with Chewy now...

Hazel stopped by last night. She had somehow gotten her tablet into safe mode. Easy fix. She plays solitaire on it a lot. It's one of the few things left that she can see enough to do. Then she asked me if I'd come help John with his computer. I used to do this quite a bit BUT then their son took over and I was happy to relinquish. I do not know where son is now but Hazel said they had gotten scammed by BECU and gotten it all fixed but then it happened again yesterday. The way she was saying it did not make sense but that's Hazel for you. I told her that no, I would not be able to help. I learned my lesson with Myrna's computer and Myrna's son. She assured me that this was different. But, touching someone's banking on a computer leads to nothing good. I told her to contact Brandon or Michael (our two IT guys) and they would help him. She was ok with that and I was so relieved.

Someone (son?, Timber Ridge?) tried to talk Hazel to moving into Assisted Living. John is still living in the nursing wing. She refused. But she really needs it. She keeps locking herself out of her apartment - multiple times a day. Now they apparently are having banking issues.

While I have sympathy, their problems are not mine to fix. And my trying will only make things worse. I learned my lesson the hard way. But, at least I learned it.

Ok Chewy was able to remove the 4 lb bag from my order so I'll go to the vet's today and buy some there.

But, after I swim. My leg does not hurt today so I need to get back to walking. Walking to the pool counts.

Yep, that's Biggie's Latest Adventure. The vet did an ultra sound and you can see one big one. She was surprised that Biggie didn't have any symptoms. It should be painful but while he considered it an indignity and annoyance to go the vet, he's not showing any signs of pain. But taking him off the medicine and back on to Very Expensive Prescription Food turned out to be the best option. We go back in 4 weeks and do another ultra sound. Unless he shows distress or can't pee and then we go back immediately. And, even if all goes smoothly for 4 weeks, if the rock is still there, probably surgery. Again.

Both Biggie and Julio like the expensive food, very much. so there's that. Do not tell Biggie, tho. but Temptations are a thing of the past. As are lickables. I bagged up the food and treats. I'll take them to the cat food bank.

The vet gave me some food samples. And I stashed some cans away when I switched them last year. So I've got enough on hand til the Chewy order gets here. I hope. All I've got now is canned stuff. No kibble, no treats but, hopefully, the Chewy order will be here soon.

Why in the heck did I not remember to get some grated parmesan when I went to the store to get the grated cheddar??

Also today I have a pain in the leg. It's in the middle of the thigh of my left leg. The right leg is usually the one that hurts. And this is a very weird pain plus a fair amount of weakness. The chairs at the vets are all really low to the ground and I was not sure I'd ever be able to get out of them once I sat down. It feels like if someone were to massage my thigh really hard, it would fix it. Hopefully it will fix itself today. I can at least walk around the halls here safely as they all have nice railings.

I was downstairs yesterday before the festivities but they had already lined up all the chairs. It was a weird sight.



It looked very different and couple of hours later. It was really fun to watch the parade. The employees dressed up either in costume or in really nice non-work clothes and they merrily high 5'd the old people. And, according to accounts, had a marvelous time. Very fun.



The Timber Ridge dog park is like a dog pond today but the rain has kind of stopped a little. All around us there are massive floods. The interstate is closed just north of here due to a giant mudslide. We're breaking water records all around.

I need to get a load of laundry started.

On Thursday, Biggie has a vet appointment at 9:30. Volleyball ended at the regular time this morning (8) and I stopped and picked up mail on my way home and then had coffee and breakfast and farted around on a few websites and then got up to look for my earbuds then back down again for more internetting and now it is 9:25. So... I think, Thursday, I'll have ample time to get there without being rushed or late.

I still haven't found the ear buds. I've had them out and charged them up within the last couple of months but even in the case, the damn things are so small, they can easily hide nearly anywhere. I guess a grid search will have to happen today.

And I'm going out. Shredded cheese and Amazon returns.

Amazon Prime video lets you add subscriptions to other streaming services. Initially, I thought this was cool. Especially when Apple+ won't let me sign on, much less give them money. I was able to see all the Apple+ I wanted via Prime. So, when the black Friday sales hit, I grabbed some deals. Turns out not to be the great deal in all cases. The HBO/Max you get via Amazon Prime is NOT their entire catalog. That was a bit of a blow. Ditto with AMC+. On the up side, both are monthly so I can cancel any time but still. Had I known, I'd have gotten the HBO/Max special via their website where you do get everything they offer. AMC+ doesn't matter. There's only one 6 episode show I wanted to see - "The Assassin". I'll watch it and cancel the subscription and know better next time.

Today is cookie day. Every year volunteer bakers all over Timber Ridge make all kinds of cookies and take them down to the meeting room. Then they are distributed into boxes with each box getting about a dozen and a half home baked cookies. They will be handed out to each employee tomorrow at the Employee Christmas Party. I signed up to help put cookies in boxes. I also volunteered to help dispose of any that get broken. I'm a giver.

But, I'd better get dressed first.

I had a, mostly, online friend who died a few years ago. He was Jewish and always bitched incessantly about Jesus music this time of year. He always acted like it was an unexpected insult. It amused me every year. Now when I hear background Christmas music, I think of him. I'm pretty sure that would piss him off.

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I think I'm a fairly good communicator. I try to consider my audience and how they might receive what I'm trying to convey whether it is in writing or orally. This journal is a great test. I am surprised how often I totally miss the mark. I can tell by comments when the point I was trying to make landed somewhere off in never never land. It's humbling.

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I am soon to be 77 years old. Multiple times a day, nearly every day, I find myself thinking 'when I get old, I will...' or 'I'm never doing that when I get old...' And then I find the brake pedal and realize, doh!

Out in the wild, people drop dead of 'natural causes' every day at ages much younger than 77. Of course, here at the cult, where the average age is mid-80's, I'm quite young. I'm pretty sure that's how my perspective gets skewed.

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I am out of shredded cheese. Not out out but close to out and I use that stuff on everything so this needs to get remedied. I might wait until tomorrow when the house cleaner is here. Or Bonny usually goes to the QFC on Mondays because that's when the new flowers come in and she does love her fresh flowers and she could grab me some cheese.

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I've had my swim. I need to empty the dishwasher and probably get dressed. Oh and make the bed. And then...