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Susan Dennis ([personal profile] susandennis) wrote2025-08-20 09:38 am

(no subject)

My current phone's crack would cost me $300-500 to fix. The trade in value is $235. My old phone has a trade in value of $450. So... Trading in old phone, buying shiny new BLUE! Pixel 10 - even with taxes = $450. And new phone comes with massive cloud storage and google's pro AI for a year and $170 store credit which I will use to get a fancy charger and new case, probably.

I'm hoping new phone does not come with pre-cracked screen. Cracked screen phone will be on standby for backup.

All done and now I don't have to sit through the stupid announce event. Win win.
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Susan Dennis ([personal profile] susandennis) wrote2025-08-20 08:16 am

Timing

Tomorrow there is nothing on the calendar. Not even a baseball game. Today I have a baseball game (both my teams) and the Google event and the car repair guy all at the same friggin' time! Geesh. Also a Food and Beverage meeting.

I told the car guy that anytime Thursday or Friday was best. So he picked 10 am today. ??? Whatever.

The Google event is at 1 pm eastern time which is 11 am here. BUT the Google store has a countdown timer for when the phone will be available to order and it says that there is 1 hour left. Meaning 9 am. Which would really suit me better. I am going to buy a new phone and trade in this cracked one. I would love to get my order in before the car guy comes. (The sooner you order, the better your color choices are and the sooner your delivery date is.)

I put in a load of laundry last night and set the machine to start this morning. It's got 10 more minutes. Then I fold and put away.

Also today, they are coming around to change the batteries in our thermostats and clean out the HVAC filters. I don't need to be here for that. Last night Joan stuck her head in the door and yell 'ARE YOU GOING TO BE HERE TOMORROW???' She always does that. Are you going to Safeway? Are you going to be here this weekend. It annoys the shit out of me. I have vowed to answer 'why do you ask, Joan' but last night I put the game on mute and said that mostly I would be. "WELL I HAVE A 1:30 DOCTORS APPOINTMENT IN CASE FACILITIES COMES AND WANTS TO KNOW". OK. 1. They don't need you here or care. 2. Neither do I. 3. Tell Bonny, not me! She's working my last. and 4. Don't yell at me ever.

Ok, laundry's done. Folded and put away. So at least there is that. So far, so good.

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summersgate ([personal profile] summersgate) wrote2025-08-19 02:24 pm

tuesday

My heart rate is ridiculously variable as the day goes on, and my blood pressure too. But when I was at the doctor's yesterday it didn't do any of it's low heart rate stuff (of course) so she ordered me a heart monitor which I'm going to get tomorrow. I'll wear it for a week and then they can make better decisions about what's going on. She did change my meds a bit so I will be getting less metoprolol now and she added a new med (losartan) for high blood pressure instead. I canceled volunteering at the nursing home today cuz I just didn't want to worry about some weird heart thing happening while I was there. So now I have a free day, which is nice. Heading over to the goat shed to work on mosaic after I post this.

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Yesterday. This is a picture of spider web attachments on the window sill in the shed. I had thoroughly brushed all the webs away when I cleaned in there (didn't kill the spiders though) so these webs are all fresh.  I thought it was interesting how the spiders had reinforced the webs where they attached them to the sill. At first I couldn't see the webs (too delicate) and all I saw were the thicker spiky attachments and wondered what they were.

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For the top two I decided to use some of the fimo beads I made years ago. I have SO MANY fimo beads still and I think they'll make nice borders around the mirrors.

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This is down back where Dave and I like to sit. Two chairs supporting each other.
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Susan Dennis ([personal profile] susandennis) wrote2025-08-19 08:34 am

Yoga fail

I bailed out of aqua yoga. The instructor, I don't think, has ever been in the water. I'm sure his instruction is great if you are 1. on land and 2. really into yoga. I am not on land and I want to stretch, not breathe. The stuff he has us do mostly works meh in water. He does not use the water at all so mainly we fight to stay and not float away. And also the 45 minutes are spent 15 minutes moving slowly and 30 minutes stationary and just breathing. The water is warm unless you are just standing there breathing and then it gets cold fast.

So. Yesterday was my last class. I will spend 30 minutes swimming laps on Sunday mornings instead.

Volleyball was also kind of meh today. One of our best players is hooked to a heart monitor for the next week and a half so can't play. The asshole was there today being very assholey. But, it's over and I didn't say anything I wanted to so I'm glad of that. My lips are getting better at staying zipped.

Watching the Phillies play the Mariners was really weird. Kind of like when you catch an NPR person talking on TV. The sound is right and the lips are moving in sync but my brain just can't handle it. The Phillies ate up the Mariners and then spit them out. Because of MLB blackout, I could not listen to the Phillies broadcasters so I'm listening to the idiot Mariners guys who are clearly rooting for the wrong team. It was beyond weird. There are two more games and then everyone goes back into their assigned corners. They will probably meet again in a few years but not before.

Today is house cleaner day and so errand day.

John's still dying. Joan is in bad shape but not dying and, I think, pretty pissed at John for stealing all the attention. Hazel is holding up kind of. She's getting a lot of attention from a wide variety of people and she's trying to keep everyone happy. Including John. It's kind of a mess.

Oh wait. Breaking news! Hazel just came in and sat for a chat. Her son has been working with exactly the right people here at Timber Ridge (which I had hoped was the case but didn't know) and they have a room in the nursing wing for John to move into tomorrow. This is perfect. This is exactly the way things should work around here and usually don't. But this time. Hazel does not have to do a thing except walk over there to visit. He'll even be on this very floor.

She said that the doctors told the both of them that they don't know if John has a day, a week or a year. But now he'll be comfortable and she'll be able to be with him whenever she wants on her own. I am very relieved. And so is she.

Oh and now I'm getting sucked back into aqua yoga. Maybe. I sent a note explaining why I was quitting and now Erica (the fitness person) is asking 'if we do xxx' would you reconsider. Sure.

As always, stay tuned!

But now it's nearly 10 and I'm not dressed yet!

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summersgate ([personal profile] summersgate) wrote2025-08-18 11:36 am

monday

I haven't written here or even been in my room to sit in front of my computer since Wednesday it seems. My heart has been acting up. I was getting out of breath and light headed just from climbing up the hill from down back, climbing the stairs from the basement, or doing housework; and having tightness in my chest. On Friday I started to take note of my blood pressure and noticed that the BP was good but my pulse rate was very low - under 50 a lot of the time. On Saturday evening I called the doctor on call and she said to hold my metoprolol and see and if that helped. So I did and it did seem to help the heart rate but now, this morning my BP is up. I need to find out if I should change the dosage or what. Waiting for the call back from the doctor. Passing time waiting, and I remembered - oh - I could look at the pictures in my phone I took last week and write something.  So here's Wednesday's pictures of scenery downback (boring stuff you have seen many times before), Friday's progress on mosaics and the new eye glasses I ordered and should get in a couple weeks: Read more... )

*****
Okay - got my call back. I have an appointment now to see the PA at 2...
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Susan Dennis ([personal profile] susandennis) wrote2025-08-18 07:54 am

Monday

Noelle has taken to leaving me little notes on my shelf. Yesterday her first one was a long rambler about how she had baked something - I forget what - for Hazel but couldn't find her and wanted to know this and that. I sent her a text and said talk to Bonny. The second one was 4 hours later and even longer about how she had run into Hazel ramble ramble and then "I'll let her tell you what they decided but her husband wants to come home" and then some stuff about God's will. I texted her "thank you for the note." Leave me alone, Noelle. You have Jesus. You don't need me.

Martha popped in last night and said she had run into Hazel at Costco - her son had taken her.

The Phillies won. The Mariners lost. Today (tomorrow and Wednesday) they play each other.

Today is aqua yoga. Tomorrow is volleyball and house cleaner day. Wednesday is the Food and Beverage committee meeting. Thursday is volleyball. Friday is pretty open if you want to schedule something.

Also Wednesday is the Fall Google hardware announcement. I'm on the fence about a new phone. So I'll watch the announcement and decide.

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Susan Dennis ([personal profile] susandennis) wrote2025-08-17 07:58 am

I'm learning

Yesterday, at elbow coffee, Ingrid showed up for a while. She comes late, complains about the latest Timber Ridge insult, and then leaves early. She once screamed at me, during elbow coffee, because I did not check on her when we had an alarm go off. "You are my neighbor! You are supposed to look out for me!!" It was ridiculous. Yesterday, her complaint was that every time she forgets to open her door, Timber Ridge calls "or worse yet, comes to my door". This is a horrible thing to her. She has now lived here more than 5 years and this has been going on every single day for those 5 years but I guess, yesterday, she couldn't conjure up any new offenses.

Others tried to jump in with solutions (which she did not want) and I just kept my lips zipped. Finally she finished ranting and left.

Joan called last night clearly looking for me to say 'if you need anything, let me know' but, aha! I have successfully wiped that phrase out of my playbook. I listened and ummed and aha'd at appropriate places and then said goodbye.

Yesterday, Jim (across the hall - not the Jim of Jim and Gail) came out while I was puzzling. He had his TV remote with him. Jim's problem or part of it, is that he cannot express himself. He says all the words correctly - he does not mumble or slur - but the word strings rarely make sense. I explained that there was no joy unless we were in front of his TV so we went there. He really couldn't tell me what he wanted. There was a ribbon on last watched channels that seemed to bother him because of the six, he only wanted 3. "I want to watch the UC one there on the far right." The one on the far right was NBC. He said his buddy who helped him set up was coming over today and he'd show him. I did remove some of the last watched. But never did figure out what he wanted. But he had a car race to watch so when I left he was happy. He never wants much and is always so pleasant.

Martha says that the neighbor care requirement here is greater than the rest of the complex. She thinks it's because we are on this shorten floor. Most floors have 20+ apartments and we have only 10. But, I'm learning how to do it. Lips zipped, hands not raised, response, not volunteer. I think I can do it.

My friend, Steve, told me yesterday that he turns his thermostat down to 65 at night and then up to 72 during the day - every day. Seems like I tried that when I first moved in and it did not work. I was getting heat when I wanted cool. But, hey, Steve's been here for a lotta years. So I tried it last night. Heaven. It was just perfect for sleeping. My bed said 92 out of 100. This morning I turned it to 72 - too hot. So back down to 70 and I opened the door to the patio which thrilled Julio.

The Phillies game is about to start. The Mariners are playing at Williamsport, PA - the home of the little league world series. I might watch some but for sure on mute. I do not approve of baseball games in these silly places like car racing stadiums and little league parks.

No big plans for after the game. Just the usual. I might run a couple of errands and I might save them for next week.

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Susan Dennis ([personal profile] susandennis) wrote2025-08-16 11:52 am

one down, one ?

John is giving up treatment. BUT Bonny has picked up the support wagon. She and Hazel agreed that Hazel is going to keep Bonny updated and Bonny is going to report to everyone else. This is a fabulous arrangement. For me. Ok so new news, as I type that sentence, Bonny just came in to say that John is going to have some sort of treatment today to look at his stomach 'so he's not pulled the plug yet'.

Joan did not spend the night at the hospital. But she did not come to elbow coffee. Her grandson and grand-daughter-law and her son have all arrived today. No word on that. But, I am not on the hook there, either.

Dick (of Jan and Dick) has found out that instead of an outpatient procedure to work on his heart, he now needs a bypass or stent or something, they haven't decided, and has been told to be careful about exercise.

Jim got a paper cut from his airline luggage tag at the airport last week and, thanks to blood thinners, nearly bled out standing in the TSA line.

Elbow Coffee was interesting today - at least no one bitched about the weather.
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Susan Dennis ([personal profile] susandennis) wrote2025-08-16 09:03 am

Bonny is a fast learner

Yesterday we were in the hallway discussing Joan and I could tell that I'd lost her attention. She reached up to the back of my head "oh I think I missed a spot." Then she smoothed it down and declared that it was fine after all.

It's one thing to get a good barber but it's the creme dela creme to get one that will always be on the look out for when a trim is needed.

I got a call yesterday from a woman who lives on the other side of the complex. Their son is married to Joan's daughter. She called to tell me that Joan was in the hospital. "Her daughter's with her but she wanted me to call you because she didn't see anyone else on the hall to tell when she was leaving."

I get that. Particularly when I head out for Bellevue or some other place and am going to be gone longer than 30 minutes, I always think I need someone back here, on the hall, to know. No reason but I always think that. So I get it.

Joan has many many problems but lately, it's her back. It doesn't help that she is 92. But she has very active family and she has every single on of her marbles. Nothing to be done by us but I went to tell Bonny and she and I went into Joan's apartment to make sure all was fine. It was. Bonny also told me that John had his first massive drug treatment and it went fine.

10 minutes later she was in my apartment to tell me that 'fine' was apparently short lived and that now he was in the same hospital as Joan.

Elbow Coffee will be sparsely attended this morning. Jack is on a cruise and Jim and Gail are off somewhere again.

I love my new coffee table. I have a power brick and charging cables that I use for computers, watch, cat toys, phone. And I have all my knitting stuff. I finally decided that the charging stuff needs to go into the table. I have two cables, then, that need to come out. So last night I grabbed my handy dandy drill and the biggest drill bit I have and dug out a hole. It was a lot harder than I expected but I managed to get a slot exactly the right size.

I did trip over the power cable twice so I looked into a cable cover. My first try was a total fail - going back to Amazon. But then, I thought, why not a throw rug?! Like the one I have on the other side of the room?? PERFECT and they are on sale. It will be here Monday. So I just need to be extra careful til then.

And speaking of charging, I see that Julio's favorite toy needs more juice.

My two games are on at the same time again today. Yesterday, they kept pulling ahead and then falling behind, both of them. So I'd keep the sound on the one that was behind until they pulled ahead and then mute it when they got the needed runs and listen to the other game. It worked out fine.

Martha and Bonny both wanted mini monsters in school colors. I complied.

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Susan Dennis ([personal profile] susandennis) wrote2025-08-15 08:39 am

Rainy Day off

I was exhausted last night. Between losing two baseball games, building a table and cleaning up after, etc. I slept good. (Now, why is 'slept good' acceptable when it's a clear violation of the verb modified by adverb rule???? and why am I just noticing this now?????)

So, I'm reading this book that I'm not that into but can't quite find the spot to abandon. It's about two grown sons and their mother. The mother character has - in the first half of the book - been drawn as very old and so fairly demented and failing in health of body, mind and spirit. Then last night, the author finally mentions her age - SIXTY FUCKING TWO!!! Holy crap. Seriously. Insulting. I'm pissed. But, still reading, of course.

But, people, 62 is not old. Late middle age, maybe, but not old at all.

I love my new coffee table and the uncluttered look it provides. And the pop up bit is wonderful. I moved the massive knitting bag off the couch in yet more uncluttering. This morning, I learned that the cats both appear to approve. And there is still room for me!

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I got an email last night from my guy at Crate and Barrel saying my new couch cushion was underway and including the invoice again but this time it said delivery ETA mid-September.

It's a rainy day and later on, we're supposed to have REAL rain. Now, it's just wet and misty.

I might do laundry. I might not.
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Susan Dennis ([personal profile] susandennis) wrote2025-08-14 12:59 pm

Still alive and table is fab

This morning after volleyball my heart started racing. It happens from time to time but today I could not make it stop. I went on with my regular stuff, including hauling the heavy table bits up and then going back to return the cart I borrowed. Still it raced. So I didn't rush anything and rested a bit before I opened the table box.

I do have a handy but reliable??? ECG app on my watch and it wouldn't work because my heart rate was 141 and it can only measure under 121. Whatever. It slowed down a little and I got to work.

The table was a little more complicated than I expected but I took it slowly and got it all built. And the box tossed and the old C table put into the storage area and my stuff moved to the new table which, actually, I like quite a bit. It pops up to the perfect height for typing and eating but then down low enough to make a nice footrest and it has lovely storage.

My heart rate is down now but still wonky. If I die, feel free to pass on these dets to anyone who wants to know.

Next up. Vacuum. Table building is messy.
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Susan Dennis ([personal profile] susandennis) wrote2025-08-14 08:32 am

Today's job

I finally tracked down the coffee table that Fed Ex delivered yesterday. Most of Amazon's deliveries go into a set of lockers. I get a bar code when they are put into the locker. Easy peasy. Great system.

The rest of the packages do not have such an easy birth. They get delivered to the front hallway and then, mostly but not always, get moved to a locked room in another part of the building. From there, they get delivered in the afternoons, sometimes. Often as not 'ooops, the delivery guy was off today' or 'ooops the delivery guy forgot to pick up the second run of packages' or 'ooops we didn't have the staff'.

The system used to be that you could pick up your package at the front desk if you didn't want to wait for delivery. That was great. But, alas, that process got killed off. About a week ago, I wrote to the head guy and asked him to think about giving us a pick up window. An hour/half hour every day when, if we want, we could go get our packages ourselves.

Then yesterday my coffee table got delivered to Timber Ridge at 10 am and to me at ... never. After volleyball, I went by the office of the guy whose job it is to handle packages to see if I could get some info. He wasn't there but my package was! So I wrangled it up here.

BREAKING news! Just as I was typing this whole boring story out, I got a note from TylerThePackageGuy, saying they were going to institute a package pick up time from 1-2 every day! Woot!! And nice. Very nice.

So that's my day today - putting together this table. First I want to get dressed and return the cart to the front desk and get the Timber Ridge Times for our floor and distribute. Gotta get my chores done before work. Today's Mariner game is at 10. The Phillies aren't til 4. Both of them lost yesterday and not because they were playing better teams. Neither game was good. Hopefully today is better.

Oh, the annual car visit was the easiest, best yet. $150. No big issues. They were done before lunch. I swung into the car wash on the way home to celebrate. Now you need sun glasses in the garage. Most all the cars around mine are owned by people who no longer drive so they are covered in dust. Mine shines!

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