The morning starts a bit better with me not rushing and getting going about 8ish. Sleep is helping, but I feel still weak and unsteady at times. This is normal as I am about 1/2 through chemo, but it makes the day harder.
I have coffee and some cream cheese mixed bread from Wholefoods and read and write. I am not in a hurry and write an extensive blog. Sunday was a busy day, and I can feel the I-Over-Did-It feeling this Monday while writing the blog.
I have to throw on some clothing as Corwin does not have a ride to work and drive him. He still bills me for his rides, so I save $15 but just drive him. When he uses a ride, I ask him to pay me back the cost by buying groceries, which has worked as there is always milk and eggs at the house now. Stupid way to solve the obvious, but what the heck it works.
I cannot stop coughing and sneezing on Monday morning, and I look outside; yes, it is sunny and cold. Pollen everywhere! So I take some allergy over-the-counter, and the reactions to the nice weather in the Greater Portland area soon stop. Rain saves us from this.
Aside: I use the antihistamine cetirizine hydrochloride 10mg, once called Zyrtec; I use the cheap knock-off version from RiteAid.
I get dressed and make lunch. I miss Susie as I grill my sandwich in butter and then add water to the pan when the sandwich bread is nicely brown on both sides. I then cover the pan for a brief time. The hot steam will heat the sandwich, melt the cheese, and make the beef hot inside. The trick is to have enough heat without burning the butter in the pan and then add water, just enough to steam the sandwich. This is Susie’s favorite sandwich, and I used to cut it into quarters to make it easier to eat. It is better than you will get anywhere, and even as just a grilled cheese, it works! I miss her living here while eating my sandwich and watching Bloomberg news.
The news is grim. The markets are unstable and chaotic as investors dive into haven positions. Others are making shopping lists of good stocks in the EU that will weather the war and the chaos. These good EU stocks are now cheaper as indexes are sold, including these good stocks as investors dive to havens. Thus the indexes sales are driving good EU-based equities to new lows, until now inconceivable. Some are even buying now EU indexes, all pushed low, that contain large-caps as they believe these equities will recover first. Short positions are starting to leak into the market, showing that the dive to havens was not a bad idea. It is a mad, mad world.
After lunch and watching the chaos on Bloomberg, I take Air Volvo to Forest Grove Rehab and Care Center at 3900 Pacific Highway, Room 44A, to see Susie. The driving is strange as construction suddenly closes lanes, and drivers are willing to use extra-lane driving to avoid the construction. There were no issues, but attention is always required on the trip to Forest Grove from the Volvo Cave that resides in the unincorporated and mostly forgotten Reedville.
I thought I had taken a photo, but the pic was not in the iPhone when I went to find it for the blog, sorry.
Susie was sleeping in her bed when I was there. She looks tired but happy to see me. Today I brought flowers and put them in a vase. I moved to her room last month for flowers. This brightened her room.
It was a short stay as she was sleepy and forcing herself to stay awake. Susie used my iPhone to access FaceTime to talk to her mother, Leta. They had a long chat while I slipped out to see the RN. Susie’s vitals are in her normal range. I check them every day. Next, we called Susie’s Aunt Joyce in North Carolina for a chat.
After that, Susie was like, “I am not tired,” with her eyes almost closed. So I kissed her goodbye, through a mask and always with gloves. I am sure she slept after that.
I stop by Jim’s Ice Cream in Hillsboro on the way back to the Volvo Cave. I am no longer suffering issues from cold items, and with my date for starting chemo again approaching, this might be one of the few times I will get ice cream. Unfortunately, I forgot my wallet on the counter after paying for the Rock-Road in a waffle cone, but the gal who made the cone brought it to me while enjoying the cone in Air Volvo. The ice cream must have frozen my brain!
I stop by the house and then head out to Safeway and get items for various dinners upcoming. I get the missing items to make Jambalaya from a box. Corwin at the house is already started on cooking some sausage and defrosting some shrimp. So Corwin makes dinner while I rest a bit. This is how he is helping out.
Another aside: My checker is Aws at Safeway. He is about my age and now lives here after leaving Iraq as a refuge. He makes a living working for Safeway. He and I have chatted about life when he checks. He asks about Susie and how I am doing. We are friends after I wished him well during Ramadan a few years ago; he was looking a bit worn as he was fasting. We agreed to pray for each other.
I am still reading The Words That Made Us: America’s Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840, and I am happy with it. It is the legal history of creating the words that make up the US Constituion from a Yale professor. I was worried it would use justifying false narrative of US history, but it seems to be focused on words, and I find that a fascinating way to tell the US history. The text also uses what I would say is old-school words that make me stop and amaze at such usage. Most editors demanded more clarity and easier words, but the author–Akhil Reed Amar, has eschewed such ideas. I like it.
Dinner is good, and the shrimp may be too many, but shrimp is often like caviar–there is never enough. I watch the news via PBS, including the BBC and a bit of the News Hour, and turn off the information before I am impacted. The grim reaper is in Ukraine, and the harvest of the innocent has begun. “How long,” is called out, and I remember my Bible as I think about the scenes, Rev 6:10.
I spend the rest of the night catching up, paying medical bills, most small amounts from various co-pays, and starting my taxes by downloading all the documents now available. Ugh, tedious and expensive.
I make blueberry muffins as a reward for getting the paperwork started. But then, I watch a bit more Bloomberg on the start of the EU markets, it is chaotic, and commodities are best described as a rocket-powered roller coaster, exciting and unsafe.
I am tired and a bit unsteady by 10ish and return to reading the giant heavy book by Professor Amar and soon sleeping. I never heard Corwin come in.
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