Weather, Or Not

On the lower right there are some stairs with railings and on the upper right is the spa (aka Old People Hang Out). That's facing east, so when the sun is out, particularly in the early morning, it screams through there and blinds all in its wake. (ok, a little dramatic) But, when it's not out, like this morning, it's a beautiful snow-capped mountain view. Oh and see that big white swanish looking thing in the center on the far side of the pool? There's one on the other side and they hold the volleyball net.

My swim this morning was just lovely. And I remembered to stop by the mail room on my way home and pick up Bonny's mail. She wants someone to go to the grocery store for her but she didn't ask and I didn't volunteer. She's too picky and I don't want the stress. Joan taught me that. Joan no longer drives and yet has a laundry list of things she must have at the grocery store. She has a shitload of family but apparently they can't be bothered. I get it. She wants green bananas and when you go out of your way to find green ones and get them for her, she bitches about the price. Nope. The end. Bonny says Safeway does not slice the compressed turkey roll the right way, only QFC does. WHAT THE FUCK??? 1. She could have gotten it before her surgery and popped it in the freezer if she was afraid it wouldn't last a week. (that shit will probably last a year) 2. Beggers should take whatever sliced turkey they get and 3. They sell sliced turkey downstairs at the Bistro. So. No. I'm not volunteering. IF she asks me directly, AND I'm going anyway, I will likely get whatever she wants. Otherwise nope.

I am going to Safeway today, probably. I need tortillas and flat cheese and cottage cheese. But, honestly, I can hold out for another few days and I might. Ok, a little interruption. I just ordered two things from Amazon and had them sent to a locker at a different Safeway! It's still in Issaquah but I've actually never been there. ADVENTURE!! They will be ready for pick up tomorrow. This is exciting.

Today is the usual. I might toss in the laundry. I finally remembered to get some mesh laundry bags at Dollar Tree yesterday. I want one for my bras and one for my socks. My brash always want to octopus my pants and my socks want to wander all over the place so this will contain them. And then... When the closet lady designed my closet she made this neat little pull out thing for scarves. Except. I only have one scarf. BUT I just discovered I can use it to hang my mesh bags above my dirty clothes hamper. Genius.

Ok. I gotta go see my pocket bottoms back together.

Today is my 16th Wegovy shot and my last at the lowest dosage. Next week I am going to start the next step up. I'm thinking that unless I see a radical change, I'll probably just stay at that next step forever. I could probably stay at this one but I want to see if there's a diff.

We gave volleyball a kind of try this morning but there were only 4 of us and 2 didn't count. One of the players has an injury he's nearly healed from but he's going out of town. Another had a skin thing and is not allowed in the pool for two weeks. So, I made the executive decision to call it for a while. I am the one that has the email list of all the players and that makes me in charge! haha. So I sent out an email this morning saying we were going to take a break until after Memorial Day. I kind of did it unilaterally but then realized that the only person who might be real pissed about my doing it was the one person I really don't care whether they are pissed off or not so I did it. Hopefully, by then, we'll have enough people to play.

Until then, I've got laps. Which is what I did today. .88 miles. It was good.

Next up. After I get dressed, make my bed, empty the dishwasher and clean up from breakfast... I'm going to the Dollar store. I have a list.

But, first I have a bit of tech to do. I need to reinstall my wifi extender to see if I make a 2.4G network and a 5G network. One of my smart devices will not latch on and I think it's because it's not finding the 2.4ish bits. So that's first.

Today's Mariner game is in the afternoon and next week's games are all early since they are playing in the Midwest. This fits into my schedule so much better than home night games. And it will save me money. Yesterday I almost went to the Dollar Store but didn't. Today I won't because - game. I don't need anything at the Dollar Store, just have a Jones to go and so would spend. When I was little it was Woolworths Five and Dime.

I do not really enjoy shopping for expensive stuff but gimme some cheap shit to pick through and I'm in heaven. But, I do not need anything! So I'll watch the Mariner game instead.

But first I want to change the bed linen and then I have to get dressed and then Bonny wants company - she sent me a text just as I was getting out of the pool - so I'll go entertain her for a bit.

I have seborrheic dermatitis on my face and scalp. It's an itchy red rash that comes and goes. I've had it for years. I have a topical cream for my face and a lotion for my scalp that discourage it from festering. But, it generally takes a steroid cream to ease the itchy flakey and get rid of it entirely. And I worry about steroid on my face. The other day I had several patches that were just giving me fits. I had a jar of vaseline next to me so I just lathered that all over it. Bingo! It instantly reduced the itch and flake. Way better than the steroid. So I've been using it now for about a week and it's a miracle. Why the fuck didn't someone tell me this ages ago??

Ok, time to get the day started or at least to get dressed for it!

I got a text last night from Steve. Steve is the leader of our volleyball group. He's not elected or official but he's the one who takes responsibility for making sure it all works. He and I set up all the equipment every game. And he's the adult of the group. He's never snarky or mean about the assholes, like the rest of us and he keeps everyone nice and polite. And he's tons of fun. He fell off the curb yesterday and sprained his foot and maybe broke it.

So volleyball this morning was a mess. And one of the other good players is having a cist removed from her head tomorrow so she's out for two weeks. Another is going away for four days. The whole thing is crumbling like a dry cupcake. I kind of wonder if it will ever recover.

I got a very cheery text from Bonny yesterday mid afternoon. She was done and had already had PT and was happy as she could be. Then about 2 hours later, I got another saying they were giving her a roommate. This morning I got one saying she was hoping to spring out of there about noon and her roommate was the roommate from hell. At least she's got a new hip.

The maintenance guys are putting the cushions on the chairs out on the patio. I called that one!

Today will be more crochet. I'm working on a vest with a gradient yarn that is just fun to work with. The center back is the light part and it gets darker under the arms and then lighter again. You can see the center seam in this photo. The waffle pattern is very satisfying to work on.



I have a load of laundry ready to go in. The Mariners play tonight and there's my day! I'm on call for Bonny early afternoon. My job is to retrieve the walker from her apartment and take it down to the loading dock when she and her son get here. I think I can handle that.

Dreamwidth just ate the entry that I was in the middle of creating. That rarely happens but is very annoying when it does.

Oh well.

I got up at 4:30 and picked up a very stressed Bonny in the elbow and off we went to the hospital in Bellevue. Except... the garage door was locked. I knew they locked it down at night and should have figured out that it might be locked in the morning and then moved my car to the street last night. But, I did not. It took two calls to Security to get the door opened. (Yes, at 4:45 in the morning, we are not out for a leisurely drive but, in fact, are on a timeline that does not allow for us to idle in garage.)

Anyway, there was, wonderfully, no traffic at all. It was sure different. We got there with 10 minutes to spare. She just wanted a drop off so that's what she got and I was home by 6. And the door opened.

Today I'll pop into the security office and get the exact garage door hours.

I had an early and long, lovely swim.

Now I'm dressed and breakfasted and ready for the day and it's not even 9 am yet!

I am signed up now to go to the alpaca farm on Thursday. I marked today as the day I would decide to bail or not. I am not wildly enthusiastic about going but I think that's just laziness. None of the others signed up are particularly annoying. The weather is supposed to be dry and cooler (it's been way too hot for a couple of days). There is no reason for me not to go so I guess I will just do it.

Biggie and Julio have just joined forces to request Breakfast Number Two. So I guess I'll go do that.

Sometime yesterday the crew arranged the outside terrace furniture. It was all kind of piled together from when they did a big landscaping a month or so ago. Now it's all back the way it is for the Summer. Next they will bring out the cushions. I'm guessing they are shooting for this week. It's supposed to be very warm today so they will have complaints.

Old people LOOOOVE to complain - especially about stuff they used to control and now no longer do. When they had their own homes, they did it this way... When they hired their own services, they made sure...

Bonny and Joan both get newspapers delivered. The security staff does the door deliveries. And, according to Joan and Bonny, they NEVER get it right. Sometimes they leave it on the floor. Now, in fairness, neither Joan nor Bonny can pick up shit from the floor easily. So I made them signs taped to their shelves in English and Spanish asking that the newspapers be left on the shelves. This has worked flawlessly.

HOWEVER, yesterday at Elbow Coffee they were both bitching because they leave the paper vertically when they should leave it horizontally. WTF??? I give up. I'm going to train myself to ignore all complaints except mine which, of course, are always valid.

This is NOT a complaint. I weigh myself on my Wyze scale every morning. It sends the data to Fitbit and the weight then goes to Trendweight.Com where I can easily see progress and trend. The Wyze to Fitbit transition is true but nearly every single day, a 10th of a pound is lost between Fitbit and Trendweight. It amuses the heck out of me and I appreciate the gesture. If it added a 10th of a pound, I'd be using the pant off of both of them for false data manipulation. If that is not a thing I'd make it one. ha!

The Mariner game started late thanks to The Big Eunuch celebration and so ran late. They played great until the end of the game when they made not one but two stupid and, turns out, fatal, errors and lost it in the 10th. They deserved to lose. And, honestly, I blame The Big Eunuch. And just love using that nickname.

Today's game starts at 1. And, at least my favorite announcer is doing the color.

Our pool has 4 lanes and today there were swimmers in 3 of them! That's as crowded as I've ever seen it.

Tomorrow is the Bonny to the hospital at 0 dark 30. Should be fun.

Oh, I finally got into the new MyChart. I had to verify with a text about fiftybigillion times but I finally got it done, got my brother access, set up my notifications - never call me and never send me snail mail. My money says within the next week, I'll get a letter in the mail and at least one robo call welcoming me to the system. MyChart is now Epic and Epic says 'come link all your accounts at this umbrella site!!!' I got the one linked but, of course, the new one is listed as a non-linker. Thanks for that help.

Also the software now offers up no way to change your password. At one point I was allowed to set a passkey but, there does not appear to be any way to use it. And two factor authentication goes to both my email and my phone number with no way to change it.

They have some details to work out but the funniest one is this...



Those are ALL the options. Seems like they might want to think about adding at least one more.

Now I think I'll go brush my teeth and then watch my Sunday morning Tia Watson YouTube update.

Volleyball is done. Elbow Coffee is done. Lunch will be ready for pickup in 30 minutes. And that's it for today's commitments.

Today is the day to sign up for the new MyChart from my doctors' office. Earlier the URL would not work. Now it works but not for me. Verification Denied. Try again or call ... 3rd try, same results. NFW am I going to call any time soon. I'll wait.

Today is also the day they retire The Big Eunich's number. Last night's game was an Apple TV game so not a lot of discussion. I thought the ceremonies were going to be last night but they are tonight. S'ok. My mute button still works fine.

I think Julio has a tooth problem. He keeps trying to chew on things like the metal door handles on the kitchen cabinet. He's too old for teething but maybe they are kitty wisdom teeth. Julio will never allow himself to be caught to be put into a carrier so he will never go the vet. If he has a tooth problem, he's going to have to figure out how to fix it himself. Or maybe he's trying to get into the cabinet.

Lots of good TV to watch and a good book to listen to. My day is set.

Bonny asked me a while ago if I would drive her to the hospital for her surgery on Monday. She said it would probably be early 'and you are always up early anyway.' Whatever. Then she said her friend Chris would take her and then she said her son would take her (she's still not speaking to her daughter). Then yesterday afternoon, I learned it was back to me. She said she would find out today exactly what time. Fine. I don't care, really. She's going to the same hospital I took Myrna to a million times. It's not convenient but at least I know how to get there.

She just texted me that her check in time is 5:20 am. Honestly, I would not have enough nerve to ask anyone to take me somewhere 30 minutes away at 5:20 in the morning. God made Uber and Lyft for that. But, I'm not Bonny! It's fine. And as I pointed out, at least we'll dodge the morning rush hour. Her son is on the hook to pick her up after which is a relief.

So, yesterday, I went into the storage room to find one of my swiss army knives to keep in the car. I found one but I also found my glucose monitoring kit. A few years ago, I got a wild hair to monitor my glucose daily. Then I had my annual doctor visit and my numbers were down and he didn't even mention diabetes or pre diabetes so I abandoned the effort.

My numbers were back up this past January so I decided yesterday to see if the Wegovy was making a difference. My kit is a little stabber and then a little reader and an app. I remember from before that the instructions were confusing and incomplete and the app sucked and it was incredibly difficult to find out what my readings indicated. That's all I remembered. I opened the kit and found the stabber, the little stabbing pins, the strips and the reader. The reader wanted batteries. I couldn't get the pins into the stabber so I just jammed one into a finger. Then I could't get the reader to read. I tried this several times until I was out of fingers. Finally, I went to gemini. Oh that stabber is WAY easier when you know how to load and operate it! And, the little strips do not go in blood first. And, I should have done a fasting draw. Otherwise, all was good. hahahahha

My fasting draw this morning was 111 - I was expecting much better. But, I was also expecting to have lost more weight so whatfuckingever. The glucose kit goes back into the storage area this morning.

Friday is menu day and next week's selections are dreadful. Next week is also the last week of the meal allowance month. So, this morning I ordered 3 dinners. 2 for the freezer and 1 for me. That leaves me enough for necessities (yogurt, quiche, eggs) next week and lunch tomorrow. This week they had decent lunches and dinners. So I took advantage.

The Mariners game tonight is the start of the whole retirement of the asshole's jersey. I'm thinking it will be a good game to watch on mute.

Meomensteeen - a fellow Mariner fan - left a comment on yesterday's entry which turned my asshole pitcher's frown upside down. The asshole's nickname is The Big Unit. She said "Once my grandma misheard my dad when he was talking about Randy Johnson. She asked me, "What is this big eunuch your father keeps talking about?" Ever since then, my family has called him The Big Eunuch."

I am so so so so sorry that my Mom died without hearing this.

I just ordered more yarn. I have a house full of yarn. I have yarn for the blanket I just started. I have yarn for the vest I just started. I clearly have a yarn problem. But I found this yarn and put it in my basket and waited for a free shipping deal. I got the free shipping code so what was I supposed to do??

Ok, enough. Before I spend another penny this morning, I need to get dressed and make up my bed. Them's the rules.


This is the project I settled on for this yarn. It's one of those go until it's big enough or you are tired of it projects.