Story 6July2022: Wednesday

I spoke to Michelle, who runs the Hummingbird House, and her folks agree with me that Susie has had a setback and may have had a stroke on the right side. It is also possible that it is the re-emergence of a previous stroke (strokes can come back) or some other cause, including fatigue. We will not send Susie for tests or to the hospital but will care for her at Hummingbird House. She is safe and comfortable there, and the no-needles rule is still in effect with Susie. Susie will have no more pokes. Leta agrees with this decision.

Going backward from Wednesday night, I had coffee with a shot of amaretto liqueur on the side. This is one of my favorite desserts. I was at BJ’s Brewhouse for dinner with Mariah. We talked about Mariah getting back to her Zine publishing and a lot about work. Mostly, “why me or Lord” and “How long, Lord?” on work stuff. The usual grousing.

I spoke about running away someday (the news about Susie made me think about running away). Mariah wanted to know where I would go to hide from the world so she could find me. Look for me in Istanbul, Jerusalem, or even Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee when I go and hide. How long? It depends if I want to keep my job or I just hide. Yes, look for me where the food is good, the summers are warm, and the olives are great.

I did offer to write a story for Mariah’s Zine if she needed one.

I had the steak, as did Mariah. I had a Jeremiah Red beer (likely the name had me thinking about the Mediterranean). Mariah stayed with red wine for dinner and after.

While we ate and talked, I watched for news on my cell. I have the Slack channel application on my iPhone and can monitor all the messages on the hyper care channel. I also read my emails. Instead of attending the call, I stayed up on the messaging and emails. I was not needed.

Before getting a text from Mariah to find dinner and even, unusual for Mariah, a phone call, I was home, having left work about 4PM, and was home reading emails, both work and mine, and so on. I also paid some bills, ran Quicken’s updates, and assigned most of the transactions to expense accounts. I want to know where every dollar goes.

My checks finally arrived in the mail from US Bank. So much of the medical stuff is falling back to paper checks, and I had run out, never imaging I would need paper checks again. Thus the bill for the ambulance to take Susie to the ER a few months ago, $312 after insurance, was now in the mailbox and entered in Quicken (it will automatically match when it clears).

Aside: I don’t mind writing paper checks for medical bills as those are all sort of one-time bills that need to be tracked for various tax reasons and to ensure I am not paying bills multiple times (with different amounts). I do not like to write checks for re-occurring bills like utilities and services–I like to use electronic payments for repeating expenses.

Work included some interesting POC of AI stuff I am working on and some future planning. As usual, as the new software is going live, I am working on the following new things. I had only one crisis of the moment today, and that was quickly resolved.

Lunch was free, and I had a chicken rice bowl with kimchi and creamy coleslaw. The slaw rescued me from the heat of the kimchi!

I spent the morning in meetings, but at 10ish, I headed out to see Susie at Hummingbird House. I was there without incident, and Susie was still eating a bit of breakfast. Vanessa, the nurse today, told me that Susie had a tiny bit of fruit, and I could see she only had a bite or two of oatmeal, but she sometimes drinks two glasses of milk. She was done, and Vanessa moved Susie to her recliner in the living room. Vanessa will make sure that Susie is not hungry and will get her an early-ish lunch if Susie gets peckish.

Susie and I then called Leta, and they chatted for a while on FaceTime. After that, I just held Susie’s hand until the 40 minutes I could be there, just an hour a day on workdays, was over. Susie asked me if she was OK, and we talked about her hand shaking and possibly having another stroke. Susie was a bit confused and worried but still smiled and looked comfortable.

With a kiss, I left and soon returned to work. Just before I left, Susie asked me to get her coffee, like we were back at the house. Vanessa got it for her. On the trip back, the police people of Beaverton were chasing other cars, so I had no problems getting to the office.

Before this, I made it to work 15 minutes early and sat in the command center for the first meetings. I had woken up before 6 and just got up when I could not get to sleep. Thus, I was not rushed this morning. I had breakfast: a banana and yogurt with liberal coffee. Today, I got out the french press and will stop wasting a whole pot of coffee daily. I am in the habit of making coffee for Corwin, Susie, and myself–now it is coffee for one.

I dreamed much last night and woke early and refreshed.

Thank you for reading!