Story 27Oct2022: Thursday

The cold is still bothering me. The pain in my right leg is not as bad as yesterday, but it still makes standing difficult. I can not find the right word sometimes–a leftover from being 59 and the infusion drug–the drug sort of makes your thoughts and muscle control go down different paths than you expect. I find words that sound like the word I want.

For example, I have been trying to remember Taylor Swift’s song Cardigan, and all I could get out was corduroy–not the same thing. Going deeper, she has a new album, but I liked the previous one better–Swift is better, I think, in a pandemic. But the pre-Covid song Shake it Off was fun, and I saw a marching band do it on the Thanksgiving parade show–it is really fun to see tuba players doing this song. So, yes, finding words and getting all the muscles to fire in a useful way is still a fascinating experiment.

For those worried, I liked some of Taylor Swift’s music before the chemo and Covid-19; it is not brain damage. I also like, gasp, Katy Perry too. I like her beat. I like clear song lyrics and a fascinating rhythm, not over-mastered (Ms. Perry is often over-mastered). The best newish song for me is Train’s Drops of Jupiter.

Wednesday night, I also wrote more of my Dungeons and Dragons adventure until about 11PM. I am trying to get enough done so we can play it in a few weeks. I like some of the ideas I have come up with, and I think it will be fun to play. I write by creating a set of themes and seeing where these ideas take me. For example, I wrote a previous adventure on alien mind control in a Dungeons and Dragons setting. Another one was a dream, and if you die, you just re-spawn. Interesting when you can just kill player characters without worry. It is 25 pages long, with more than 17,000 words so far.

Picking up the narrative for Thursday, I woke with my alarm at 6:15 and started into the usual Thursday rush. After finishing the blog on Wednesday night, I made corn muffins for the potluck lunch today at work. After getting dressed and having breakfast, I ensured I brought those with me. I managed all the usual things, including my pills.

I hit the road just as the school buses started knotting up the traffic, but I still managed to make it before 8AM. I did a few meetings and prepared for a meeting at 1:30ish. Today was the last regular working day before Halloween, so there were mimosas and donuts, costumes, and the joint lunch. I did not wear a costume this year. I usually wear a hacker mask with a top hat.

Next, Michael G collects my wine at Purple Cow, and he had a whole case for me. So we moved the wine from his car to mine. Purple Cow’s Tempranillo is some of the finest in the world.

After that, my meeting went well, and then my 2PM was canceled, so I headed to the hummingbird house. Susie was awake and in her recliner drinking her Ensure (that is why she has the bib). She was thrilled to see me–I was late.

There, we called Leta, Susan’s mother, who was concerned about me being late. Work just kept me busy all morning. Leta and Susie chatted for a while using FaceTime on my iPhone. They talked for a while.

The doc has written an order for Ensure, so it will now be delivered from the pharmacy–I still have to buy it, but it will be on a medical bill. I might be able to include that in my write-offs next year (now that there is an order and it is part of a medical bill). It is also just good to get it on a bill, so there is independent documentation that it is getting purchased and used.

I had to get back, so I kissed Susie goodbye, and Air Volvo took me home. I decided to cross Coopers Mountain, and I was dodging dump trucks the whole way. I even went an extra bit west to avoid the usual 15 mph curves. I had cars behind me riding my bumper, with me having a slow dump truck before me.

I finally reached home and checked back into the shoe company. Nobody needed me, and I rested a bit and checked in again. I can fall asleep in minutes now–an interesting change–and then wake in fifteen minutes (sometimes thirty).

I made dinner at 5:30. I heated a North African Couscous sauce and boiled mini gnocchi until hot. I made couscous by heating butter and cooking almond slices and spices like cinnamon and cardamon in the hot liquid. I put the tomato sauce with olives and spicy with the gnocchi. I just pour the sauce and gnocchi over the couscous–it is wonderful.

I watched Beatlejuice, the old movie, as I could not remember it. It was cornier than I remembered and I think I liked the town model too much. I want one!

I then put out the trash and wrote the blog. Thank you for reading.