12 Oakdale

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Day 3 of our trip, and still no luggage. Fortunately, this time to Northern Africa, we packed so we have a change of clothes (for some reason, I didn’t put in an extra blouse, ah well) and all Grant’s meds with us in our carryon bags. Lost luggage does make it easy to decide what to wear each morning. Same old, same old. We are at the Fairmont Nile Hotel, with a wonderful room overlooking the Nile. Between us and the riverside People of Egypt Walkway is a 6-lane road with constant traffic night and day. I use the term “6-lane” loosely, as lanes seem to be suggestions, not rigid rules. But there are lane markers. Buses, trucks, cars, mopeds, even 1 horse-drawn wagon stream pass. What there isn’t are crosswalks. I have seen none. Pedestrians just walk slowly across, one lane at a time, while traffic goes by. I am determined to try it.  My plan is to be next to a local and follow their lead. This morning we saw men standing in the road waiting for a seat on a microbus. Eventually they...

Bloom & Grow Membership Committee’s Welcome Back Open House was a success. All of my anxiety a waste. I knew that, but I still worried. We had 36 people attend, which does include 6 committee chairs and 5 of us on MC, but still, a good turn out, plus 3 people said they were joining, Ashley created a huge charcuterie, Rosemary brought desserts and a collection of raffle prizes (she evidently loves haunting upscale thrift stores), Linda P. came in the morning to help Grant and me set up, then stayed to bitter end cleaning up, Tina volunteered as extra hands. A good group. I provided the PowerPoint, which I updated with current pictures, plus I organized my committee with myriad emails and texts. My coup was figuring out, with coaching by AI, how to create an iPhone shortcut to send individual text to everyone in B&G, asking them to reply “Yes” if they were coming. The good: I got a few more positive responses. The bad: a heck of a lot of “I’m so sorry I didn’t answer your email.”...

Out to visit Mary, who says she is doing well. Ryan is still in a hotel somewhere in the Mideast. I’ve brought my sketching and paint supplies, a scarf I’m remaking, and our computer so I can update the Bloom and Grow PowerPoint.  The week’s project, in my mind, is to get all of the school supplies currently in piles on the living room floor stored so they are accessible. I always forget to take a ”before” photo. Mary had made great progress by sorting things into piles. So many markers, so many crayons. Just way too much for what shelves are available. Long term: items not used will be moved on. Short term: get things into the upstairs storage room with distribution TBD.  Well, finding the mouse and her nest certainly helped our decisions to throw stuff away. After 6 days of plodding away, going through the garage moved to the top of list. A full van of items donated, and a full garbage can thrown away. Thank goodness I looked in the cubby with the stuff from Ryan’s old car. ...

I guess we are officially old: we went to Grant’s new doctor, and he walked out with 3 more appointments. Are doctors’ visits our new social time? (Yes, I know we are old; this was just an awaking.) The original reason for the visit was to get refills for the 6 medicines he takes. In the course of the interview, Dr. Mehta decided Grant’s shortness of breath was likely cardio not pulmonary, so he wants that looked into. Grant is to return to him in a month with all the information needed. First up was to make an appointment with his cardiologist who, it turns out is on medical leave, return unknown. Yes, her APRN was an acceptable sub. 7:00 AM appointment next Wednesday, on the other side of Orlando. The bone density test easily scheduled and fairly nearby. Blood work at Quest, check. Then the cardio person added an X-ray which might be done at the same time as the bone scan.  On the other hand, we have been healthy enough to keep busy. Two weeks ago, a family and friend filled trip...

Forty-eight hours after my alarm was set for 3:00 Monday morning, we were back in bed, exhausted. We had arisen (I always sleep badly before an early plane trip), flown to Las Vegas, driven to Alamo, Nevada, toured Michel Heizer’s City , and returned home on the red-eye, to collapse in bed exactly 48 hours later. To break it down, and process all that: the first part of the trip was our usual get out of bed at o’dark hundred, dress, maybe eat, drive to the Marriott to park our car, shuttle to MCO, fly to wherever. We usually do this because flights are cheaper before 9:00 AM and we get a full day at our destination, especially if we head west to new time zones.  Then it got weird, not just because we were about an hour’s drive east of Area 51, home of the famous UFOs. For someone like me used to subtropical foliage and now central Florida’s coverage of green, the starkness of the scrub north of Las Vegas seems so barren. Plus no cell service. I definitely felt I was in a twilight z...