Blog

Returning to a narrative, I started the morning by being woken by my iPhone at 7:00 after sleeping most of the night, getting up at 3ish to prove hydration. Glenda was up at the sunrise and noticed that I was up 30 minutes later. I made coffee and had the other half of the poppy muffin I ate the day before. It is a travel day for Glenda; Susie’s aunt is returning to North Carolina today via an all-night flight on Delta.

While I write the blog and take it slow, I am more tired than yesterday and might be overdoing it a bit. It takes me about 90 minutes to write the blog on Friday. I also look at my personal email and read enough news to know what is happening in the world while writing.

After that, I get dressed. I also load Air Volvo with three more boxes, primarily books, to give to GoodWill. Finally, I put the dead vacuum in Air Volvo. We decide to have lunch and then drop off the items before seeing Susie. Glenda continues to dust and vacuum with the new machine.

Lunch is leftovers, and soon we drop the dead, nearly Viking-funeral-ed vacuum at the SBS recycling near the house. There is no fee for vacuums. Next, we head in Air Volvo to the Forest Grove Rehab and Care Center at 3900 Pacific Highway, Room 44A. We forgot to stop off to give away the books and also failed to stop at The Pink Spoon for some frozen treats.

We arrive without incident and pass the manual entrance steps using the touch screen. We find Susie is up in her wheelchair at the tables near the nursing station. Susie is just finishing lunch when we get there. We hang out with her for a bit, and she finishes lunch. Then, we agree to return with a treat and head off to The Pink Spoon.

The place is not busy on a Friday afternoon, but we are the only folks with masks. Everyone keeps their distances still, which is a surprise to me. Soon we are the only ones at a table and having a little snack. I collect some chocolate and vanilla gelato for Susie and one for Terry, Susie’s roommate, and get them to go.

We return without incident, using the back way into the strip mall and the facility to avoid the Pacific Highway traffic. Soon Susie and Terry are having a bit of dessert, but both have it put in the frig and will eat it for dinner.

Glenda and I move to the quieter lobby and call Leta, Susie’s mother, on my iPhone, and they have a friendly chat on FaceTime. We take a few pics, and soon Susie is tired-out. She asks to return to her room, and we find a nursing aide to help. I watch, and Susie is just lifted into bed. She is still a sack of wet noodles and can’t walk or stand. While she has had some rehab on balance and standing, she still cannot stand.

With Susie in bed, we head out and return to the Volvo Cave. We remember to stop by GoodWill, and the books and other items, the last load with Glenda here, are handed over.

We get back, and I am tired, and Glenda needs to finish packing. Glenda does some laundry and tries out the vacuum on the carpet. It works well, and soon the canister is full. It seems about one room to a canister unload. Glenda packs two boxes of books to send to her in North Carolina; not all were given away. The complete set of Narnia and all the Brother Cadfael mysteries are among the books headed to North Carolina!

We reheat the Italian we brought back from Nona Emilia yesterday, plus a few other leftovers. I chop the veggies for a salad while Glenda cleans the lettuce. The food is good on the second day, if not better.

Glenda finishes up the packing and gets dressed to travel. We load up Air Volvo and make the drive to our award-winning airport simply called by its call letters: PDX. The Pacific Northwest says goodbye to Glenda by raining for most of the drive.

I dropped off Glenda at the Delta entrance without incident, and her last text said she was at the gate 90 minutes early. I head back, and Air Volvo seems on autopilot as I have driven this trek many times.

I return home and connect with David and Michelle Smith, and we use Disney+ group watch to enjoy the next Moon Knight episode together. Again, while I like this show, it is hard to predict, and the story is chaotic. Today’s show was, while well done, crazy. The blue giant Hippo goddess was a unique special effect! I liked it.

After that, we chatted for a bit, and then I headed to bed at 11:30ish and was asleep before midnight.

 

 

Today I will try to list the day’s events instead of writing a narrative. Just something new to try out.

As planned, April is the last month of my medical leave. I have a return-to-work day of 2May2022, the first Monday in May. So I added a week to my leave, and that was wise as I am now feeling much better, and the signs of anemia are mostly gone. I also had a glass of wine with dinner last night and had no side effects from the alcohol. So while I still tire easily, I can do more and more each day. I have lived with anemia for almost a year, and I cannot express how pleased I am to have it finally end.

Aside *a slight rant*: The insurance company that runs my leave request, Sedgwick, sent me a demand to have a doctor’s approval for my return to work. I had already spoken to an agent and was told I did not need that, and now it would be difficult to get one in time as I would have to have my doctor rush one out. So I called Sedgwick again and was told that the form they were requesting to have the doctor fill out was for my employer, Nike, and was needed only if my boss needed it. As I am not working in manufacturing or warehouse, I do not need this according to my last time talking to them. I decided to ignore their request. I was informed that I must call them on my first actual return to workday so they can close my case. Growl.

The other side effects have also ended. But, I still have some issues with chemo-head with picking words and drifting off and just thinking of something unrelated–some of this may be Covid-19 isolation based. The nausea is gone. The muscles moving in unexpected combinations are gone. My imagination is back, including the return of nightmares, and I can do more than write narrations again. I believe my sharp thinking is back, which is good for me returning to work.

I was glad to get a note from my boss at Nike, Inc., that he will meet with me on Monday and give me some direction. I have to get my Nike laptop running, and I have set Saturday for that event.

This takes me to the next interesting item on Thursday; Glenda is leaving on Friday, so Thursday was her last full day with us. Glenda, you might recall, is Susie’s Aunt who lives in Ashland, North Carolina, and came to help get the house organized and find a solution to Susie’s next place to live. I took Glenda to dinner at Nonna Emilia’s in Aloha, Oregon–one of our oldest family-centered food joints. They have been serving home-style Italian food for more than fifty years. Glenda enjoyed the atmosphere and the food.

Also, Susie is planned to move to an adult foster care, Allegiance Senior Care, in May, another thing we are now changing after April closes. But, we will wait for the rehab to finish at Forest Grove. Glenda and I picked the new place from a recommendation list from Bristol Hospice and really liked Allegiance. I will pay about $7000 a month for the room plus some add-ons for services. Susie needs level three support, and this costs more. Allegiance Senior Care needs to get Susie a hospital bed and various other information for her to live there. This transition is already in progress and will complete in May. So, again, ending Susie’s nursing home stay (at $12,000 and more a month) in April.

Next, we visited Susie at Forest Grove Rehab and Care Center at 3900 Pacific Highway, Room 44A. Susie was finishing dinner, and Glenda helped feed Susie. Unfortunately, Susie cannot hold the spoon and manage it. She also had to take small bites of pureed food and honey think liquids. I was told by the nurses that Susie did NOT pass the swallowing test, but they have another one planned soon. Later, Glenda pushed Susie around the facility, and we had a longish visit with her, including calling her mom, Leta, on Glenda’s phone; I forgot my phone.

We brought Susie a new t-shirt from Glenda and a new sweatshirt from me. Both from the arboretum in Portland. Glenda picked mushrooms for Susie; Susan’s father wrote a famous book on mushrooms from Alaska, so mushrooms are a thing. I brought a more generic sweatshirt with trees on it.

Susie was sad to have us leave that day as she was not tired. However, we reassured her we would be back on Friday.

One of the next big moments was a small fire. Glenda was using the old vacuum to clean up the house and mainly remove the dust from my Turkish rug. I told her I was surprised that our vacuum was still working as all the previous ones died after a few years of use.

We started to smell a burning smell that I thought was from the rug; the friction of vacuuming a wool rug often creates an odor, but the smoke rising from the vacuum suggested a more severe issue. Glenda got the burning vacuum out of the house. Later that day, we bought a new vacuum at best buy (running into a fellow Nike IT guy who was happy to see me). So we dubbed Glenda Vacuum slayer and took a pic with the new vacuum.

As described, we went to Best Buy for a new vacuum. The selection of over-priced devices was surprising. After looking for just a few moments, I moved to the bottom of the collection and picked a $299 model that was a step up from the cheaper ones and hoped I would get at least four years out of it. It is still a canister model; Glenda likes bags, as with those you don’t have the filters to clean. But I want to see that it is full, and Corwin seems to remember to dump the canister when he can see it is full.

Lunch was leftovers and the morning was full of the usual blog writing, and Glenda was cleaning until the fire slowed her down.

Sleep was easy last night. I also received a pre-order of a Portland-based writer’s latest book and read it until I started to nod off. Emmeline Duncan writes murder mysteries set in Portland with the storyteller in the book, Sage, starting a new coffee cart business and then stumbling into murder. I like the mix of Portland, coffee, and crime, and it reminds me of Nero Wolf’s books that mixed New York City with Orchids and what we would call now foodie stuff. This is her second book, Double Shot Death.

Those were the events for Thursday. Thanks for letting me try a new writing format.

 

Going backward, I was reading until I went to sleep before midnight. I finished as much as I wanted of a book on Becket. I read that his chapel was the most valuable in Chiristdom and ordered a large book from AbeBooks from a show about Becket in England; it was the museum book with all the pictures of the items put on display for the show about Becket. I learned from the book that all that is left of this chapel, Henry VIII destroyed it, and Cromwell finished the job, is just a piece of pink marble found at Canterberry Cathedral.

I had watched part of the movie Becket, but it was so inaccurate I could not finish it and wanted to know the truth. So I ordered a book from the show at the Cathedral. Now that I have finished as much of the book I am going to read, I will send it to GoodWill. I don’t need another picture book, but reading and seeing all the pictures were good.

Before this, Glenda, Susan’s Aunt from North Carolina, was vacuuming my Turkish rug and cleaning up the area that is now clear of books and games. She found more dice and my copy of the new rules for Twilight Imperium, a massive 4X board game that had fallen behind something. I will print a new copy of the living rules; even the versioning of the rules for TI4 is complex!

Before this, I completed moving the last stack of books to a bookcase.  I still have some smaller piles, but the books are mostly put away. The games are put on shelves and not on the floor. The board game Root, which is now four boxes and a rolled map, is still a bit messy, but I will soon find a better home for it. Root finished a new version just before the pandemic, and we did a lot of play before the lockdown. This is one of the asymmetrical games where everyone plays by different rules. It is hard to master as each of the factions, I have lost count of how many there are, is a different set of rules and game experience. This the game even more exciting by playing with four or more players, running mostly different rules. As one can imagine, the game has had some issues, and I have the updated rules and boards. In addition, I have a corrected set of rules and parts.

I forgot to mention that the lawn service people and I chatted on Tuesday, and we are replanting part of the back lawn. I want less mud, carefully edged by my lawn service, and more grass. The fallen apple tree had killed part of the back lawn, and I now want it back. Also, grass will better drink the water and reduce the wet back there. They agreed and even replanted a more extensive section than I had seeded. So I am watching the grass grow, quite literally.

Before this, we had Chicken Cordon Blu for dinner. These are frozen, uncooked, and from Schwann’s. I made a slightly unsmooth buy tasty Hollandaise sauce to go with this–I have not found the secret yet to make this sauce. Glenda cooked more asparagus and reheated the leftover couscous as sides. It was a lovely meal. Corwin had some a bit later.

Continuing the backward narrative, we were at Forest Grove Rehab and Care Center in the later afternoon. Susie was in bed and asleep when we got there; I was manually checked in (the person who let us in did not know how to use the new computer system), while Glenda was checked in by the computer screen.

Susie was a bit talkative when we woke her and reported that she had multiple rehab sessions that day. Good. She and Glenda chatted for a bit, and then we connected with Leta, Susie’s mother, on my iPhone. We all chatted for a while.

Susie had a cut on her head and blood on her pillow. We had the RN look at that and will keep an eye on it. We are not sure how Susie cut her head, but it did not look like a bump from a fall. Again, we will monitor it.

We left Susie after a short visit, but she was sorry to see us go as she was fully awake now. It is always heartbreaking to leave. I was too tired to stay much longer.

After writing the blog and getting ready in the morning, we headed to the Hoyt Arboretum in Portland. I asked Glenda to pick something she wanted to do, and walking in the arboretum was her choice.

We did 5,000 steps in the morning, and I was breathing hard a few times when we hiked uphill. It was a gray day, and we got some Oregon Mist and a few sprinkles. We saw the bamboo and ginkgos collection and many other less exotic groupings. I have not been there for years, and it was pleasant to walk.

We got there after nine, and there were few parking spots available, but we got one and then paid Parking Kitty for the spot. We were headed back then just before it would expire; my phone started to meow to warn us our time was running out. It is a friendly app.

Also, we did get a bit mixed up on the way back as the trails look different when you turn around. We found a different path back after asking for some directions from a guy running the trails.

I started the day with my alarm at 6:30.

 

 

The morning started with me waking for my alarm, again sleeping through the night. The sun was up and shining in complete ignorance that the weather report said it should be missing while we instead should enjoy unrelenting rain. The microclimates that make up the small valleys here make it impossible to predict our weather in Aloha (now Beaverton and once Reedville).

My approach is to always assume it is raining and will rain all day until the rains stop in July (and now, due to climate change, the rains may halt in June). It is pretty surprising, but once the rains stop, they are done for about 90 days, with thunderstorms being the only rain in the summer in our new climate that is only five years old. Before the significant climate change, we did not even get thunderstorms. Now we also get hit by tornados too. The tornadoes rip the US flag off the house and drop it on the roof or somewhere in the yard. The same is true for the progress and pride flags at the church–we find them a few months later.

Aside: During the summer in Death Valley, a heat-low forms when the low spot reaches about 120F daily highs. This heat-low then pushes all our rain away for the summer–Seattle still gets the rains. This continues until Death Valley cools, usually in October.

Returning to the narrative, I spent the morning writing the blog and having a breakfast of a banana and 1/2 a muffin that Corwin bought and left out. After that, I started to sort all the remaining books and put some in the repaired bookcase. There is no room for everything, but we did dispose of a considerable number of books, and so there is more room.

I will not miss most of the books we gave away to GoodWill as I found I was reading the primary sources. So I seldom enjoyed the Time-Life books on ships and encyclopedia-like books as the information there was already in Wikipedia, more complete there, and had better pictures.

Glenda, Susie’s Aunt from North Carolina, continued the archeological dig in the pantry and organizing and cleaned the kitchen.

Also, I have kept all the books on the Battle of Jutland, as I have been fascinated by the narrative change to a hundred-year-old battle. You would think we would have had a correct story on this battle, but the true narrative is just coming out. The 100th anniversary of the 1916 battle brought out quite a few new and highly researched books, including a careful study of the wrecks of the ships lost in the encounter of fleets. These books contradict the official narrative, including one official American written definitive (less so now) account.

I have a collection of books from around 1926. These books help write Call of Cthulhu Role Playing Game adventures, and I even use them as props for the game. I have, for example, the Green Book, Volume 1, 1925, which was an annual list of driving routes on the US East Coast. It was used by drivers who needed to visit towns before the interstates existed. Most of the books are hard to find; those I have kept are close to being primary sources.

Back to the story, I started to reload the bookcase, more work than I expected, and we then had lunch from the leftovers. I remembered the other half of my Ruben sandwich and reheated it. It was still delicious.

We soon were going to Forest Grove Rehab and Care Center at 3900 Pacific Highway, Room 44A, to find Susie in bed resting. Apparently, she had multiple therapy sessions that morning. Excellent. Terry, Susie’s roommate, said they worked Susie hard. We chatted with her for a while and then called Leta, Susie’s mother, on my iPhone. Glenda and Susie talked while I checked in with the nurses; Susie had constipation again the night before and was in some pain. Once the obvious was done, the issue was naturally solved.

We headed out as Susie started to yawn. She was reassured when we said we would return on Wednesday. Susie is still scared she will be left there for multiple days without visitors. I can’t blame her; it can get pretty lonely in those rooms.

When back at the Volvo Cave, I continued to put books away, and Glenda started dinner after cleaning and organizing some more. Lentil soup with the ham and ham bone from the ham we baked earlier. We then covered it and went to the movies.

I wanted to see the new Harry Potter world movie, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore. We got tickets and drove to Movies on TV Regal Theater. The film was about 2 1/2 hours with the previews. I liked it, but the movie’s start was difficult for Glenda and me as we had to reconnect with the new characters and plot. Usually, I would read the book and then see the movie for Harry Potter and would already know the story and the characters. With this movie, you have to reconnect instead and remember the plot from the previous movie. Eventually, the characters become familiar again, and this movie had some entertaining moments involving moving like a crab-scorpion to be less threatening. I also liked the ever-expanding donut trap, which harkened back to the trap in a vault in a previous Harry Potter movie. Glenda liked the movie. I would say that the critics are wrong; it is a fun movie–but the reconnecting is hard and distracts from it. It is also running a checklist of things that need to be covered from the previous movies, which also distracts a bit as you have to remember the connection from a few years ago. Again, I wish the books would come out (I miss reading them), but as a fan and having seen every movie, I recommend it, but you have been warned about the reconnect issue.

We took Air Volvo to get home, reheated the soup on the stove, and cooked some veggies in the new microwave. All of it was excellent. After that, Glenda started cleaning, and I went to read as if I was tired. We went to bed about 10ish, and I was asleep before midnight again.

 

 

 

I started the day at 7ish with the alarm waking me to a sunny morning in Oregon. I am very conscious that this is my last Monday on leave and have started to worry about returning to work and making it to Susie every day. It is important to her (and to me) to see me, and, as it is, unfortunately, true, Susie gets better service and care by having me show up each day. Also, with the dropping of masks and many people believing, or at least trying to believe, that the pandemic is over and social distancing and masking is a thing of the past, return to work will include more risks for Susie and me. It would be a near disaster if I was exposed to flu, cold, or Covid-19 and had to stay away from Susie. So I worry.

Glenda is cleaning the floors and has her flight back to her home in North Carolina. She, Susie’s Aunt from North Carolina, is returning on Friday night via a redeye flight. I have taken these flights often, as getting up on a dark morning and rushing to an early flight are the pits. The time difference of three hours makes the flights back to the East Coast, and the timing for arrivals is quite messy.

Returning to the narrative, I wrote the blog, and Glenda continued to clean and organize. The old microwave oven was in the car as my old Apple laptop, propane tanks and bottles, and various old electronics. Once I was done, Glenda and I took Air Volvo, loaded up like a cargo plane, and headed to SBC Recycling. Glenda picked up the $18 recycling fees (including $5 for the microwave). Finally, the old propane tank and bottles found a home, yeah!

We stopped by the UPS Store and learned that bubble wrap is not recyclable here in its various forms and goes in the trash. That was disappointing as Glenda had collected it and hoped to find a happy home for it. But, nope, it is headed for the garbage.

I forgot I had a nice Ruben sandwich in the frig and instead made a sandwich, ham and cheese. Glenda found more leftovers for lunch.

We then traveled to the Forest Grove Rehab and Care Center at 3900 Pacific Highway, Room 44A, without seeing any extra-legal antics from our fellow drivers. I am still using the traffic light and turning into the back streets to reach the facility, which seems safer.

Susie was in her Wheelchair when we got there and was just finished lunch at the tables near the nursing station. One of the other residents is taking all the nurse aid’s time as the resident tries to wander but will fall–they have to have someone with her all day.

It is cold and gray in Oregon on Monday, so we stick to pushing around Susie in the home. I also got Susie’s vax card, now updated, back from Pre. Susie had, finally, her third shot nearly a year after the last one–I had my third one some time ago and am headed soon to shot number four, 50 being long ago in the rear-view mirror.

I also ensured that paper copies of my letters were received and put in Susie’s chart, with the phone number hand-corrected. For example, one letter states that Susie is leaving in May for a new place. I like to state my intentions in letters, but I do not make demands in these notes. Implementing my preferences is left to the facility’s staff as they often have forms and processes that I am unaware of. We also check that the DNR for Susie is still in place and corresponds again to yet another paper letter; it does.

Susie, Glenda, and Leta (Susan’s mother) have a friendly chat on FaceTime using my iPhone. We chat for a while and even cover some less exciting topics. Soon, Susie is getting tired and tuned out for some of that. But, we notice that and soon say goodbye.

Susie had speech therapy today and had more treatment scheduled in the afternoon. We finally are getting Susie some services at Forest Grove! I will sign her up for “In-Home Care” when she moves to Tigard in May.

Glenda and I took Air Volvo home. There Glenda continued with her archeological work in the pantry. The granola bars were from 2010! Next, I started to repair the bookcase. I drilled and re-enforced the shelves with cabinet screws. Many central shelves can no longer be moved, but they also cannot fall. One of the too-short shelves got a 2″ screw to ensure it would handle the weight of books. Unfortunately, there are a few extra holes in the bookcase as I have to find a 1″ plywood board while balancing it on books. I have also countersunk some screws and discovered that they looked worse than just leaving the screw heads visible. I also first drilled pilot holes but soon learned I could, if the drill is set correctly, just drive the screws in with the drill without a pilot hole. It was at the limit of the drill’s power, but it saved a lot of time.

I was pretty tired out by all that, and I recycled a twenty-year-old set of dull drill bits. I had a new set of bits that I had forgotten, and it worked better until I realized I could manage with just the screws. But going into a plywood shelf sideways with a screw was again at the power limit for my battery run drill.

Aside: The old bookcase is made of plywood with a veneer of hardwood, making it look like an old-school plank-built bookcase. The plywood will not warp but is more rigid and heavier than plain wood. A few shelves were 1/4″ too short, which caused them to wear against the metal pegs used to hold the shelves up. Now the shelves are permanently set in place. I did just the middle shelves as the bottom and top seemed to have no issues.

I rested a bit and then made dinner. I used the defrost on the new microwave as the chicken thighs for dinner were still frozen after being left out for a few hours to thaw. The new appliance worked perfectly and fast. I had the chicken thighs, skinless and boneless, baking with just Herbs de Provence on a rack. I used the spice bag we bought in Holland at the Van Gough Museum (the spices are made in the same location as Van Gough painted in France) to remember my last trip with Susie to Europe in 2019 (the herbs are fading, but my memory is still bright).

(2019 photo)

I made couscous to go with it. I cook spices (cinnamon and cardamom) in hot olive oil with almond slices and raisins. I then toast the couscous, it absorbs all the oil, and then add hot chicken broth to the very hot pan. I stir and add water or couscous, depending on how the absorption goes. I remove it from the heat. You must service it immediately, so add the liquid at the lost moment and, if you have to, remove the pan from the heat if your timing is off and reheat the pan a bit then later before adding the hot liquid (I warm the broth in a microwave sometimes).

We also opened the last can of Freestone peaches and discovered plain peaches again, not the wonderful stuff I had last year. So no more Del Monte Freestone cans, sad.

I watched a bit of PBS news after dinner. Corwin had some dinner too. It was plain but good: nothing too dressed up and all easy. After some news, I went into the bedroom and chatted with some friends on the phone and learned the latest goings-on at Nike IT. Glenda read her book, and I read too. After that an early bedtime, I was soon asleep and never saw midnight on the clock.