As before, dear reader, I will cover my status this Monday morning. I managed to get some sleep as getting up at 6AM to take the steroids is working (I am also finally spelling “steroids” correctly instead of having Grammarly correct it every time). So, yes, all those perfect Oxford commas are not my work, but Grammarly following along. I feel better today, and the cane is less needed. Also, the winds came, and the Stagnate Air warning was gone, so my morning was not full of sinus and breathing issues. So better start this early morning. But, the extreme cold sensitivity is there; my hands are stiff, and my elbows hurt now. But, better start this morning.
Returning to the blog for Sunday, my hands shake slightly, and the cane is needed to move safely. I oversleep somewhat, and 6 is more like 6:30ish.
I am not for pillboxes and get out the bags of pills, now two different Ziplock bags, one for chemo-related and the other for daily pills, and find the required meds, reread the labels, and take the steroids and the anti-nausea drugs. I also grabbed an allergy med from the cupboard. The drug is over the counter, and that too has a drowsiness warning.
I managed to write more blogs this Sunday morning, but the coughing and sneezing and sudden tired feeling overwhelmed me in an hour, and I stopped. The chairs in the living room are not recliners, but it does not matter as sleep comes; the electric blanket (thanks to Aunt Kathy and Uncle Martin in Michigan) and just sitting there, and I am out for nearly two hours. I awake just in time for church.
This is our first streaming service. It is made more remarkable as thieves raided all the equipment last month (definitely a Grinch move) and then came back for seconds and grabbed the replacements. Also, I have heard rumors that many churches have been “Grinch-ed” last month. The church is now using its limited dollars to install security cameras and use active security people.
The streaming is good. The transitions were weak, and the use of stock video failed, but the sound was good, not consistent volumes, but that is easily managed by the viewer, and the video quality is perfect. All of this is on a YouTube link owned by the church. Not Zoom+ (thanks for not going that way), but real streaming. The multiple camera changes got better, the focus perfect, and the colors good. The music is not mixed well, but it was solid with one mic failing but quickly covered. Harold’s playing was clearly in the background and at about the right level. It will only improve with time, an excellent start.
The beginning of the sermon was lost to a sound issue, but this did resolve, and Andrew’s speech was good, well-spoken, and on message. Dondrea having a copy of the text for the lost stock video, saved the transitions. Overall a better effort than I have seen from most churches with Zoom+ that suffer worse focus and conductivity issues.
After that finished, next came lunch and Charlotte Jackson’s Clam Chowder that already had been lunch for me early in the week. I managed to get it into a large pot, and we cooked it all, and over the next few hours, we made it disappear. Also, the chocolate pudding pie she sent with it was consumed; chocolate is always welcome. I had to be careful with the cold dessert and ate one piece slowly with hot water.
The blog was seriously delayed now. Next, my meeting group for church, about five or six of us, covered prayer concerns and discussed the sermon at 1:30. They were happy to see me, even still in my messy hair and robe, carefully closed, and this did work as nobody had conductivity issues, but we did have the constant talking with the mute on issue. It was a lovely time, and since I watched the live sermon as I mentioned above (I just cannot manage a speech without visual clues that are most online sermons now), I could even reply back to the questions on the sermon.
I manage to find focus now to finish the blog. I noticed a slight change in tone towards the end of yesterday’s blog, but that could not be corrected without deleting the last writing or rewriting. Not something one should do on a blog; change in tone is just some of the risk of blogging. I see this happen to my friend Violet Blue, an influential blogger and published writer. She experienced rewrites in her weekly blog that kept her up all night trying to get her blogs to reach that incredible tight writing that I dream of someday producing.
I notice time is running faster than expected; I am slower than usual. I like to get so much done every day; this is hard for me. However, the combination of sleep loss and mixing downer (allergy and anti-nausea meds) with steroids impact my thinking. As a result, my focus bounces, and I am inefficient in my time use and becoming a bit single-threaded. Moving to Nike IT speech, I will have to accept this risk, I think (a wave to my PII friends at Nike). The strict following of my medical plan can be mapped to our planning process for a “train” of development at Nike, and the Meal Train did come from Nike IT!
Returning to the story, I finally got the blog done and ignored the tone issues, as I said.
Dressing and getting prepared to see Susie is late but goes on without new issues. I often call Kate when I have unexperienced side effects, nothing new today. My boss, Brad Jones, at Nike will be dropping off dinner, but I will not be there to receive it. It will be set outside, and that will be perfect as we will just miss him by 30 minutes.
My hands are now shaking too much to safety shave. The beard is starting, hmm.
Corwin comes for the trip, which is good as there is someone else to chat with. I focus primarily on health and care issues. I then switch into a cruise director moment with “YMCA” videos and other things to get Susie moving a bit. Corwin shared some Viking-style playlist with Susie (!) that she seemed to like. I am using the cane now, and it is hard going for me to drive, take on all the care again, and then drive home. A short visit.
I check with the nurses who are just as interested in my health as Susie’s now. I cover my side-effects and plans for the next few days and the whole schedule. Susie is having trouble sleeping and has mixed up her days and nights. Terry, her roommate, even called the nurse for Susie last night. She does not mind when Susie cannot find her red button. It is right by her hand. So something to watch and consider.
I asked the nurses to help Susie by putting on the Olympics on the TV. This usually keeps her going. So they put it in her chart.
I drive home, leaving in the near dark, now gray, rainy evening. I try to not drive in this as the darkness makes the leaving even harder. But, I managed to get home with only once Corwin having reminded me my blinker was still on.
Corwin reheats that meal brought by Brad Jones from Nike IT. And the Mac and Cheese with Ham and Broccoli is a good meal. I took a rest between driving and dinner and likely slept. I am unsure, but time advanced on me unexpectedly.
I watched how to play videos for the Unsettled board game and one review. Corwin is politely letting me dilly dally on getting back to the game. The how-to footage is longish but nerd-friendly (i.e., pop-in content to make the video not be a mind-numbing monologue). Moving to the short review, also on YouTube did cover that the game is good and the manual is average at best–my suspicion that reading the manual was making my understanding worse was confirmed.
One last thing to do this night, I ordered miniature ropes, anchors, and other ship model parts from my fav Czech supplier. While not cheap and shipping is an unkind addition, the quality is unapproachable, and the responses are clear. Transactions are complex as the part are well complex and require multiple emails after using a cart and paying only postage at first. Here you can find cloth sails for tiny models that come with, ahem, plastic sails. If you need this kind of crazy, it is a fun site: HisModel.com. Select English and US dollars and prepare for poor editing of values (commas are properly Euro even in the USA currency). This is where your mind can take you from a 100-hour build to twice that and giggle as you replace those tired plastic kit cannons with shiny metal ones. And discover that tying the rigging for each cannon on a 100-gun HMS Victory will improve your skills at connecting tiny ropes if you can avoid going insane.
I already have all the parts for my 1/100 (big) HMS Victory kit (yes, 100 guns) that is plastic. I have a wood deck veneer for the details not painted. Of course, I have the sails and metal guns already purchased. I also have other replacement and etched brass parts from a German site that sells upgrades for existing plastic kits. My 300+ hours build is waiting for life to allow me the time investment for this nearly impossible quest. Smaller kits and figure painting also slip in as these projects can finish within life’s current timings. Someday!
Note: there are build logs and videos on this crazy ship model. So you are never alone when planning this build. Also, nobody is using the new salmon colors that have been recently discovered as the possible actual color of HMS Victory in 1803. It is bright yellow for everyone. Bah science, nobody is going to fight the French in pink ships, even if they did. Not on my gaming table or walls.
With dreams of using my hands again to do some long-term builds, I fall asleep and wake only a few times.
A late update: Corwin did make Calabrian Beef and Gnocchi for second dinner. I had ordered Blue Apron before all the Nike folks started on the meal train and Corwin wanted to cook anyway. So he did a great late dinner that I had some for my 10PM pills.
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