Woke about 7:15 which was too late to be on the radio B 4 the boat check-ins. I put on a pot of coffee while they checked-in all the boats.
We did most of our routine and we had 7 scrambled eggs for breakfast. We were tossing things around for lunch and decided on Longhorn in Suwanee. We took a nap when we got home until the linemen rang our doorbell.
They removed the transformer providing the power to our home. The power company is raising the distribution voltage to 14,000V next week. The old transformer had a fixed winding of 7200V so it had to be changed first. There were two such transformers in the neighborhood fed from the substation. I think I’ll throw the main breaker until I’m convinced that our transformer was tapped correctly as the voltage has a good chance of being wrong.
They’re putting the new transformer on the pole after removing the old one. Personally, I would not be standing under something that weighs several hundred pounds.
Almost done, it took a little over an hour to change the transformer.
Moved the equipment out of the van into our living room, I need to inventory the equipment and test it Saturday.
We had leftovers for dinner from Sunday. Ham sweet potatoes and veggies. We didn’t watch much TV, we were pretty spent today.
Tuesday
Up at 6, rebuilt a Raspi 4 and it failed to update. The operating system is locked and my only choice was to cut the power. I tried another SD card and got the same error. I changed the DNS on the router, and it seems to be finally getting all the updates. (The DNS was local but the network traffic was through the VPN, strange you would have thought the VPN would have carried the DNS traffic too.)
Joined the guys in 2M repeater this morning and listening on 40M to see if they come back to me. Checked in on the WW Net after taking a shower.
Salmon, red potatoes and veggies for dinner.
Bought a pair of identification tags for her.
Wednesday
I am up at 7:30, a little groggy though. Spent a good while upgrading my wireless routers this morning. Checked in on the WW Net, talked to Paul and made eggs for breakfast for both of us.
Took a nap and then made dinner together. We steamed the vegetables and microwaved the ham steak.
We warmed the plates on the steamer before serving dinner.
How far can 10Watts reach…. Europe is not too far LOL
It rained pretty hard tonight, little bit of lightning.
Thursday
My average Glucose is 108 my A1C is 6.1, target is less than 100 / 6.0.
I didn’t sleep very well, and I am at fault for not taking my pills on time. If I take Norvasc in the evenings, I have an issue with my feet getting numb after laying down. I think I am going to stop taking Norvasc and closely monitor my BP and see if some of these weird symptoms subside.
Took a shower and I am trying to dissect how a decision was made to have an outside service on the 4th? What happens if it rains? We went to storage and inventoried the large items. It doesn’t look like we’re missing anything for the training session on Saturday. Weather also looks good, overcast skies will keep the direct sun off of us.
A new day, geez last week was a long one. Sent a picture of the moon to my daughter and she’s not answered? Checked in on the WW Net with the HAM radio guys while sipping on my coffee.
Time to refill our pill dispensers, a pair of long nose pliers are a must. With three dispensers we always have at least 14 days loaded in them which gives us time to get the next refill.
We cut up the potatoes for lunch and its Nap time! Lunch was ham, red potatoes and frozen veggies. (Normandy Blend) We made short work of cleanup while looking up dietary ways of satisfying hunger between meals.
3:30 We’re getting ready to make a run to Wally World for some odds & Ends after our nap.
I missed having a cart to bring in the groceries, it gets here Friday
Had a sandwich for dinner and checked in on the GARS Monday Net before watching Castle with the Mrs. We checked our Glucose and BP then got ready for bed.
Tuesday
Had a bit of coffee while I checked in on the WW net using my HAM radio.
I send our C.F. sponsored children their gifts for April.
Salmon, red potatoes and frozen veggies for lunch. Checked in for our Dr. Appt tomorrow, answered lots of questions. Changed our pill dispensers to sound an alarm today versus just flashing a blue light. (Boy, you don’t miss that alarm!)
We reworked our morning schedule pages on her NUC and printed two copies for our procedure books.
I found a new use for a folder divider. It worked really well holding the dispensers.
These folding pill cases were cheap, and they’ll work great for traveling. I bought six of them and they have 7 compartments which is two days for us. This is all we’d need for a week of travel, longer trips we can take the 28 compartment dispensers.
Wednesday
We got up around 7:30 and followed our regular routine. We have to leave by 10:30 to get there by 11AM. (It turns out that the “Arrival” time is 11:30 and the appointment time is 12 Noon.) We sat in the waiting room for an hour before being called in. (I dearly hate it when they call an arrival time the “Appointment” time.) The Dr. Appointment went well and we both felt refreshed that we’re finding ways to overcome our problems. They are not actually recognizing the depth of our difficulties, but I don’t really care at this point.
We went to Longhorn’s to celebrate and to refresh her determination to do the best we can. We even had cheesecake for dessert. We made the Hostess’ Day by giving her a gift. She just didn’t believe it when she gave her the final gift of $20 after I had given her two five-dollar bills.
Back home, we needed a nap to prepare for tonight’s service. We had to take our medicine before leaving. Service went well and I changed out the dispenser trays when I got home.
I put the spare in the dispenser and filled my spare tray#2.
Thursday
I got up around 7:30, she was up and had taken her medications already. I didn’t take my medications on time all day. I need to turn ON the audio alarms when things are not going smoothly as they were today. We did fill her two pill trays that we had emptied on Wednesday this morning. (I filled my tray last night.) We took a nap and started making COD for dinner. We didn’t make any mistakes and dinner turned out really well on warmed plates.
We did have some drama while she got a haircut today. I dropped her off at the hairdresser, but she had forgotten her phone. I came home and was waiting for about two hours for her to call. When it became apparent that something was wrong about two hours later, I drove there and met them as the hairdresser was driving her home. She had forgotten MY phone number AND assumed that I was not home. Since I wasn’t home she didn’t bother to call the house phone. She did call HER phone, but we both have call screening, so it didn’t ring. (And she only called once.) Had she called a second time it would have rung. I need to make sure that she has her phone with her. Two issues make that difficult. First she normally carries her phone in her purse (So it’s not visible upon leaving home) AND it is usually buried so deeply she normally cannot find it in a reasonable amount of time.
The decision is to carry our phones in the open so that we verify we both have them when we head out of the house. I am also going to make some kind of tag that we’ll attach to her purse with my phone number on it.
We went to the nursing home and played Bingo tonight. We were also invited to eat a bit of dinner afterwards. She took two pieces of pie even though she knows that will cause her sugar to spike. I took one too and a piece of fried chicken.
We took out the garbage can when we got home for the pickup tomorrow.
Friday
My Pi-Hole has died, I am assuming that the SD card is worn out. I temporarily pointed my private network at Google DNS until I can rebuild one. This has gotten more complicated since most of my Raspi’s are really outdated. I am thinking my best bet is to reload the operating systems, then update them.
Eggs and sausage for breakfast this morning, I need to look at my to-do list before getting too involved in these Raspi’s. Checked her blood O2 levels from last night and they were good.
We went to Wally World for a few groceries today, eggs, juice and frozen veggies.
Mowed the back lawn today and our mowing service mowed the front lawn as well.
Saturday
Checked in with the HAM guys on the WW Net this morning. Signed up with Aetna Dental account as well. I am kinda foggy this morning, I may lay down for a refresh nap. (I did sleep 8 hours last night.) The vacuum filters for the portable vac arrive today along with batteries for one of the temperature thermometers.
I guess I need to rebuild my Pi-Hole, I sent Western Journal this warning.
They’re off to do the laundry with two large bags of clothes this time. Seeing them trot by with the wagon full of clothes really makes us happy!
Yep, 2 hours later they’re done. Apparently, they decided to do a much larger load having the cart to carry it. Curious that the dad accompanied the family walking to the laundromat today, one wonders if they have a car and opted to walk instead.
We got a new one to replace the one we gave away today.
Replaced the battery in one of our thermometers, it actually works.
Easter Sunday
Had breakfast with the wife, eggs and breakfast sausages.
Rebuilt the Pi-Hole Domain Name Server Protection.
Went to Sunday church and picked up the equipment for the Sunday service on the 4th of May.
Back home we had ham, sweet potatoes and veggies for lunch. Took a nice nap and then we had a sandwich while watching Castle. We went to bed pretty early, we were pretty tired.
Up early, we have a dental appointment at 08:00 for her deep cleaning.
It ended up being a pouring rain when we got into the car. Even in the rain we managed to get to the dentist a bit early. We were in the chair before 8 (Our appt time) and had to wait on the dentist to arrive. I went shopping at Kroger while she was being worked on, we were back home around 9:30. I took blue to get the emissions done, I had a little help in this endeavor. I renewed our license plates and we took a nap before dinner.
We warmed up the round steak that we prepared on Sunday for lunch, it was pretty good I must say.
We decided to have some fun, so we drove to Longhorn in Swanee for dinner. She got steak and I got my usual Strawberry salad. I did indulge myself and had a shot of Royal Crown whisky. The entire crew of the restaurant sang Happy Birthday and brought her a cake alamode. We are still having issues with Express Scripts.
Tuesday
Beautiful bright sunny day and Turkey Chili for lunch. I did manage to get the Express Scripts website to load after two weeks of trying. I also purchased Microsoft Office 365 for all my computers. I bought one license for her computer and then Microsoft offered one for half what I paid on the computer in the den. I cancelled the license for her computer and will load mine when her trial period expires.
Our friends took us out to dinner at the 57th fighter group. That’s a very interesting building and good food as well.
When we got back to their house, they served us with cheesecake for her birthday.
We had a really good day.
Wednesday
We went to Longhorn’s for lunch, we gave the entire crew $20 each.
Everyone came out to wish her Happy birthday at the end of our meal with a piece of cake. We went over to the friend’s house for Church tonight.
Thursday
We got to Longhorn well before they opened for lunch after Dr. Appointment so we stopped by Payless Shoes.
She got some good look’n and fitting shoes for cheap! ($30)
We then went to Longhorn for lunch and gave the entire crew $50 each this time! We took a good long nap and I worked on my pill dispenser for a couple hours. I have an issue with my feet going numb and that can be because of blood pressure medicines. I separated all my meds into four different dispensing periods and subdivided that into a total of eight periods.
I have a couple of issues at night, so I adjusted my pill schedule. There are four “Alarm” times about 4 hours apart. Each dispensing time has two medications in that slot. The idea is to put the second medication in the medicine cap to be taken later.
We were supposed to get severe storms, it did rain but I would not call it anywhere near severe.
Friday
Up at midnight with a yeast infection that had to be dealt with, I am too tired to write very much. I did make a pot of coffee and sipped on that during the wee hours of the morning. I took a shower very early this morning and was able to lay back down. I managed to get about 6 hours of sleep last night. Took a shower with the wife and I am making a bit more coffee for this morning.
We drove to Whole Foods and picked up some frosted bran flakes and a few other things. We then drove to our favorite lunch spot where we had a healthy lunch. Back home we took a good long nap before watching a bit of TV and eating dinner.
Saturday
We had planned on eating chicken but ended heading out to Longhorn’s for lunch. up at Longhorn’s for lunch. (We took our pills with us but failed to take them.) On our way out of the driveway a friend called delaying our departure.
This mom and her two children walked by carrying a large bag of clothes. Both mom and daughter waved at us when they walked by. Normally women avoid eye contact with strangers in cars. She had set that bag on her shoulders down twice by the time she got to the top of the hill, so it was becoming increasing difficult to carry. I loaded our beach cart that I bought for just such an occasion into the van and headed down the street after them. (People are always walking by us with a heavy load and no wheels!) We caught up to them down the street a little way and gave them our beach cart to carry their heavy bag.
I managed to find them walking back from the laundry mat on our cameras about an hour later, they looked very happy! The daughter appeared to be looking for us to greet them as she walked by.
We went to Longhorn’s and the parking lot was empty, so we gave the entire crew $20 each.
Lunch was excellent cept for the salad had very little lettuce for an $18 salad. (Which is strange since that’s the cheap part of the salad.)
Longhorn’s on Hugh Howell has always served us with a balanced plate of lettuce and fixings!
Well, time to finish up this draft and eat my evening sandwich.
Sunday
I have got to figure out what our plan is for taking our 20 medications on a schedule while we are traveling. These pill trays are excellent when we are at home, way to big and clunky for traveling. (not to mention they have to be powered!) Problem one is the reminder to take the medication, problem two is to carry several days worth. If we were going to be gone a week, I would carry the current trays! One dispenser is the size of a cup and has seven slots (Good for one day.)
The more interesting one is a folded tray with seven slots on each side. That would cover us for two days for each tray. *She has five dispensing times, and I have seven. I went back to bed until 08:00 this morning when I got up and checked in with the HAM guys on the WW Net.
We went to Longhorn’s after church and had the worst experience we’ve ever had. I wrote them a review that basically said we were never coming back.
We got the first of the travel pill dispensers today, the major problem with them is that they don’t fit into a purse very well. It’s likely we’ll use the flat ones instead.
Woke up and had my cup of coffee while I listened to the HF radio. Talked to Paul for a bit, he’s doing a yard sale to get some cash in hand this morning. I did some poking around and there’s only one small change to my taxes and I can file them.
The Toshiba has been rebuilt and seems to be solid. *I had forgotten how fast it was.
The storms were well south of us so that wasn’t much of a problem today.
Ham, sweet potatoes and veggies were lunch today.
I checked in with the GARS 2M Net, I tried to check in with ARES but I missed the call15
Applied for the Homestead exemption, but it was just an update to the application I sent in October 24.
Tuesday
Woke up this morning around 7 and got onto the 2M repeater with the GARS HAMS. I switched over onto the HF side and checked in with the WW Net too. Had eggs and breakfast sausages for breakfast. We have an orthodontist appointment at 10 and then Longhorn for lunch.
We went to Wally World for some groceries and a few other things this afternoon. We did buy some chicken legs and a package of ground turkey for chili.
We’re disposing of the aluminum (Left) and keeping the Stainless Steel (Right) humidifier chambers for our CPAP machines. We had about six of each kind.
I never got an acknowledgement from Gwinnett county so I reapplied for the homestead exemption about 9PM tonight and it went through. The strange thing is the time/date is GMT and the application has to be submitted by 1 APR 2025. (I don’t think it will let me reapply two times within a year.)
The E-Mail was delivered at 8:48 on 1 April 2025.
Bedtime.
Wednesday
We had scrambled eggs and ham for breakfast this morning. I got onto the HAM radio and checked in on the WW Net while sipping on my coffee. Lunch was salmon, sweet potatoes and veggies. I had a cough most of the day today. Just in case it was caused by my 10 Day old hose, washed four of them and dried them on the dehumidifier. When I logged into Amazon I got this VERY LONG list of items that had changed price. I assume that all the venders added the Trump Tariffs to their existing stock to make a little extra cash. The cost of the Jackery was a little shocking, it almost doubled in price to $800.00.
Church was virtual on Zoom tonight, so we watched the Empire Strikes Back.
Thursday
Up at 6:30 and went back to bed until 7:30. Checked in on the HAM WW Net while eating hard boiled eggs and breakfast sausages. Made a pot of coffee and read some news while sipping on my cup of coffee.
Time to fill the pill trays.
Dinner was in disarray so we went to Longhorn for lunch.
We came home and I mowed the back yard before it rains this weekend.
We went to Kroger for a few things. We have dinner plans for tomorrow, so we’ll cook them on Saturday. (We’re also going out on Sunday.)
Yup, that’s me holding my back yard HF antenna mast.
Friday – Saturday
Sunday
I had veggies and ranch dressing last night while we were watching The Intern. Trouble is that I still taste the ranch dressing this morning, ewe! I did not sleep well last night. My back pain is disturbing to say the least. I rolled up in two heated throws and watched a bit of TV while trying to calm my back. I’ve taken baths, that always helped a lot. I rolled up in these throws one time and it was almost as soothing. Not this time thought.
I checked my Glucose to make sure my kidneys are not complaining and that was fine. Tuned up my HF radio and checked in with the HAM radio guys on the WW net. I’ll have to disconnect the antennas with the storms arriving this afternoon.
I cleared out the trunk of Blue Focus and took it around the block and I was shocked that the computer came back as “Ready” for emissions! That’s a huge deal since I’ve procrastinated this until two days before her birthday.
The neighbors brought over a slice of cake. I wonder if they knew it was her birthday?
Again, this morning I had trouble with my feet even though I ate very little after dinner and my Glucose was less than 100. I have not figured out why my toes tingle at night and not during my nap at lunchtime.
Checked in with the HAM guys on the GARS 2M repeater this morning. Then I checked in on the WW Net with my HF radio this morning while sipping my coffee.
Loaded my medicine into the next tray and rotated them.
The CF website is still broken. We cannot reliably get feedback from the children on what they’ve spent their gifts on. The recommended gift is between $20 and $50 and has been for years. With inflation that We exceeded that gift since the pandemic to help the families cope with all the chaos. Now that we’re 2yrs out and we’re having real issues with the letters we’ve decided to reduce the gifts back to pre-COVID amounts.
Took a good long nap and we had chicken legs, sweet potatoes and veggies for lunch. I worked on my E-Mail for several hours to reduce the load on my Toshiba laptop’s Solid-State Drive (SSD) to extend its life as much as possible. I learned my lesson about letting my computer’s SSD get full when her computer failed. I also made a backup of all the Microsoft Outlook PST files on an encrypted thumb drive.
I looked up the SSD for the Toshiba laptop and ordered one, it was similar to the experience with the NUC. Like $20 bucks? My only catch 22 is there is no product key on the surface of the laptop. It’s located in the firmware, I don’t actually know if I can use it to activate WIN 10 Pro. Step one, put the SSD in the laptop and find out.
Turkey sandwich on RYE and creme cheese on a rice cake for dessert while we watched Castle. My left molar is sensitive, I need to pay more attention to it.
Tuesday
Need to stay focused today. Had eggs for breakfast and I’m out of breakfast sausages so I just had Rye toast. Need to get the car emissions done this week and I am down to six days to turn in my Taxes.
CF Sent me a letter back, “they wanted to clarify the gifts and apologize.” The two pill dispensers get to Patty’s tomorrow. I packed everything up for the dog show tomorrow, have to be there by 5:40. (Which means wake-up is at 4:40.)
Made a trip to Wally World for some catch-up groceries. I guy pulls into the neighbor’s driveway and walks the sidewalk East and West of our neighbor’s house. Then gets into his car and drives away. We don’t have Xfinitywifi, but there is one close to use somewhere. (I changed out the Xfinity router that I had to pay a monthly fee for.
WAAY too early tomorrow morning. 4:30 Alarm and leave by 5:15, I am really getting too old for this.
Wednesday – Saturday
It has been a LONG week working the dog show for the GARS HAM club. I had to get up at 4:30 for the last four days. It’s about a 25 minute drive Gwinnett fair grounds. Dog Show – Lake Lanier Cluster Dog Shows It was a bit cool when I get there. Wednesday I wore three layers, shirt, sweatshirt and a jacket under my vest.
I basically parked at one of the entry gates and sifted traffic.
The weather was perfect, sunny with a comfortable breeze.
I was exhausted when I got home so I didn’t do much but get a shower and take a nap.
I did get revive an old laptop with a $20 SSD. I successfully loaded W10 on it, I need to download the Toshiba utilities to protect the battery. (I had forgotten they only charge the battery to 80%, the power supply was very hot!)
My son bought a new home in Colorado, three floors.
Sunday
We have church this morning and it is supposed to storm in the afternoon.
We’re going to get wet traveling to church this morning.
Service went well, we only got a little wet. We did go to Longhorn for lunch and I worked on the Toshiba for several hours updating the drivers. I can buy a used one for $40 if there’s any issues with it. The power supply costs as much as the Toshiba laptop.
Took Blue out for a drive and I checked the computer when I got home. The car says it is ready for emissions testing. I plan on doing that on Monday along with transporting the wife to her appointment in the wee hours of the morning.
Up at 07:30 and made a small pot of coffee. She had cold brew coffee in her french press this morning. Checked in with the HAM guys on the WW Net and ate two boiled eggs with breakfast sausages.
Took our BP and our Glucose, mine was on the high side at 129. But then I had just eaten breakfast too. We both took a shower, and I laid down for a quick nap. We both changed our CPAP hoses and tanks this morning.
I found out the hoses have dates encoded on them a while back.
We’re tossing all of the hoses manufactured in 2020 since we have no way of knowing when we put them in service. (I had previously tossed hoses made before then.) When I was the only one on therapy and I had to use them down range, I kept them pretty long. (Years) Now that we’re both on therapy I’m being a little more particular.
New hoses sent to us can be late 22, 23 and 24 so we’re writing the date we open the package on the hoses from now on. The recommended replacement schedule is every 3 months, and our contracted supplier provides them at that time frame. If we keep working spares, then more than half of them is up to a year old.
If this store wants to charge $10/Lb that’s fine. BUT DON’T HIDE THE 2 DAY OLD BROWN MEAT INSIDE !!!
Back from Wally World with some odds and ends. The beach cart is perfect for bringing in the haul from the store.
Tues-Thursday
It’s been a busy three days. Her computer SSD ran out of write cycles and I didn’t pick up on what was happening until it was too late to recover the operating system. I paid Microcenter to copy the SSD, but all they did was recover the files on a USB disk. (Which is better than not having the data.) What I did loose is the website data in the browser, usernames and passwords. Websites drop cookies that make it easy to get onto them, but it is not something I know how to get from a hard drive.
The second thing that Microcenter did was leave a screw so loose that it fell onto the circuit boards. Worse they mounted the SSD upside down and crushed the memory into the motherboard! It took me an hour to figure out that they mounted the SSD upside down and that’s why the case didn’t go back together.
I spent the better part of Wednesday trying to get one of the three laptops configured with her login credentials and attached to her websites. It was a strange behavior, logging onto the websites would fail even with proper credentials. We spent three hours today trying to get onto Express Scripts and I ended up changing out the laptop with a newer one. (The one I installed was my anchor, it always worked for me.)
The second laptop worked like it should and I put the old laptop on my DMZ network to scan the hard drive with a “Deep Scan”. I don’t expect to find anything, I think there is a corrupted module intercepting the traffic from the browser that’s corrupting the conversation to the host. I know that it’s not located in the user files/directories since I created a new login for her. It is also affecting both Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers. Two pieces of software have modules that are suspect. One is Net Limiter and the other is Wireshark. They sit in between the operating system and the network interface.
I also loaded her pill trays since they ran out on Wednesday.
We got into a disagreement about turkey chili that was on the menu for lunch today. There’s something wrong with the recipe and she’s putting it together from memory. I went on all recipes and found a similar recipe. There were two huge issues, one was she should NOT drain the black beans and two we should use crushed tomatoes. We didn’t have any crushed tomatoes, so we went to Kroger to pick up a few odds and ends.
Friday
We got up and I checked in with the HAM guys on the WW Net while sipping on Dominican coffee I got at Wally World. We took our Glucose and blood pressure and then prepared lunch correctly this time cept for two ingredients. Shredded cheese and scallions, which really makes the meal.
We went to get some cash and then to the dollar store for a card. We dropped by Waffle House for a chocolate waffle, and I had a couple eggs since I didn’t have breakfast this morning. Her Glucose was over 163 when we got home so we both walked up the block and back. When we checked it again it was 170! That’s the first time I’ve ever seen the glucose rise after a walk. We checked it an hour later and it had dropped down to 116.
Watched Hudson and Rex and Castle before bed.
Saturday
Checked in on the WW Net and took my shower. Took our Glucose and her BP, mine was a bit high at 125. Mom’s back in the hospital. Where’s my coffee? Dropped her off at a birthday party for a friend.
Not sure what I am going to do with these two fully functional PC’s. I can load Windows 10Pro or Linux Mint and that would work well with either of these. Intel sold these Intel NUC min PC line to Asus who makes really good motherboards.
Like many other things I’ve liked, I have more than one of them. I bought one, then bought two more, then bought three more. Then I bought three more after we found out about the issue with taking our medications twice a day.
I bought an SSD for a very reasonable price of $20 that will get me back onto these NUC computers. I downloaded the media creator tool and loaded Win10 onto a flash drive to install into the NUC computer. (Took 3 minutes, 900M Bytes per Second!)
An hour later I had rebuilt both of these Intel NUC mini PCs. Intel makes a tool that downloads and installs the correct drivers.
I spent a good while looking for information on how Microsoft is responding to the 65% of us that do not have Win 11 compatible computers. There was also good information on Microsoft Office, they are retiring all versions except 2024 in October.
Sunday
Had a terrible time sleeping last night, AGAIN! The first issue is usually I have a little pain in my back from the Shingles. Then it will be some discomfort in my feet that will get worse over the next hour so after getting to bed. I had 2 hours of sleep by 05:00 this morning an 6 hours before leaving for church today.
We had ham sandwiches for lunch and a nap. I had another ham sandwich for supper with creme cheese on a rice cake. BPs and Glucose were unremarkable.
Up at 7AM helping her with her meds and making coffee. Turned on the HF radio, but I’m not hearing net control at all. I can hear the Bahamas weather report. We took her BP and Glucose. They were both good to go, my glucose numbers are falling into the 100’s. Soaking rain all day, leftover chicken thighs for lunch today.
Spent the morning refilling my spare pill tray, I have one in the dispenser and two in holders waiting. I cut the 500mg acetaminophen in half to make a 2-1/2 hour dose.
We went to Kroger and picked up a few things for beef stew today. The potatoes we had were less than edible because we had gone out to eat so much recently. Mom should be home today. We watched a great Castle episode yesterday where his daughter was kidnapped to trap his father.
Tuesday
Another sleepless night, I don’t know what is going on. I am not very tired and too uncomfortable to get a good night’s sleep. Checked in on the WW net and took our BP and glucose levels this morning.
Mine is around 100 if I’ve not eaten, it does go up to 130 if taken after a meal. It is also
I need to defend my eyes from getting dry today. Also, it might be a good day to mow the back yard, it’s getting pretty tall.
We are refining our day using these pocket Daytimer and punches.
Picked the sticks out of the back yard today and mowed 1/3 on the west side of the lawn. The mower had less grass under it than I had anticipated.
One problem with our economy is that the stock market is driving profit over affordability. In the old days companies would compete with each other over the market share. Today with so few companies in the food market, they now know that we’ll by food at whatever price they set. It makes more money to sell less product at a higher price and that profit is highly desirable for those who own the company’s stock. We are heading into a time where the concentration of money is so great that it will eliminate the middle class. (Like Iran and other countries where you have workers who support those who pay them, and no one is left in the middle anymore.)
Wednesday
Gave a dozen eggs to our neighbor at zero dark thirty. Checked in on the WW net with the HAM radio then took a good nap before heading out to Longhorn’s for lunch.
We sat in our lawn chairs waiting for the mail today on a perfect afternoon.
We had a good day, BP and Glucose numbers were very good with the change in our diets to accommodate her distressed tooth. We have to keep the gums clean and that requires us to STOP eating in between meals.
Church services went well, we scrambled just a little with the rigid schedule of our pill dispensers. If we don’t eat between meals, then the 17:30 meal is a bit early to wait until 06:00 the next morning for the following meal. We run into a bit of trouble with church if the dispenser opens after we’ve left, and we wait to eat at 19:15 alarm. Church is at 19:30, so we have to eat BEFORE 18:50. It also means the testing for Glucose and BP has to occur before we leave for our friend’s house.
Neighbors took our garbage can for us tonight!
Thursday/Friday
I sent a message to Child Fund about missing letters from Jim Jim, we last heard from her in December and we’re supposed to get a letter every month. Nothing showed up in my E-Mail yet so it will be at least Sunday before I get anything from them. *Late Sunday is their Monday morning.
We made Texas Pecan coffee both days as the Dominican Santo Domingo Coffee doesn’t taste normal. Grinding the Texas Pecan whole bean coffee makes an awful noise.
I have two medications that are not performing very well. I separated them early in the week hoping to improve their performance and it has not changed enough. Specifically, my shingles (Gabapentin) postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) has been bothering me enough to prevent me from sleeping in the bed. If I take a bath the pain subsides dramatically for some reason. I’ve also been fighting a yeast infection and a difficult time urinating (Alfuzosin) occasionally.
The original three slots that I created from two to help with my symptoms are.
Multi vitamin, Potassium, Omeprazole
Aspirin, Alfuzosin
Gabapentin, Norvasc, Lisinopril
I created one more time slot (Now 4) to these medications. I cannot separate these pills to less than three hours without buying/using three more dispensers.
Multi vitamin, Potassium, Gabapentin (To be taken separately)
Aspirin, Alfuzosin, Omeprazole (To be taken separately)
Lisinopril, Norvasc
Gabapentin, Tylenol
We totally messed up lunch on Friday. She wanted sweet and regular potatoes plus mixed veggies. We had three steamers running at the same time. I was watching Bernie Sanders make a speech that was a total fabrication while the water ran out on the mixed veggies. When I smelled the burnt pan I pulled it off the stove and then the potatoes started burning. While I was dealing with both of those the mixed vegetables started burning. We gave up and put soapy water in all the pans and went to Longhorn’s for lunch. Dinner was a Ham on Rye sandwich our regular meal. The problem with eating at 7 is that my glucose is too high at bedtime. Boo!
Saturday
Checked in with the HAM guys and looked up the storm progress, it is not even in Alabama yet LOL.
My shingles is bothering me this morning, I took a hot bath and then a nap. I felt good enough to help with lunch which turned out terrific. Ham, Sweet potatoes and mixed vegetables. We went to Publix and spent way too much money on just a few things before the storm arrives.
I moved the cars up the driveway in case our yard floods.
Well, it looks like the storms have arrived. The interesting thing is that they petered out when they got to Atlanta. We did not get much in the way of wind, rain or lightning last night. The storm was a bust.
Sunday
This young man came to the door this morning just after 7:30 saying he was being chased, and his phone was dead. Indeed, the other camera had his running down the street until he got to our house.
He was also looking down the street where he came from in earnest.
I was fast asleep from having stayed up all last night with the storm. Further when she woke me up, I had to get some clothes on before I could address the situation. By the time I got my pants on and got the wireless house phone he had walked back the way he came.
We’ve had a lot of people come to our door. None of them said that they were being chased. He was respectful of our door and never entered the home even after asking us not to close the door. (I was trying to get dressed on the other side.) We discussed protocol and from now on we’re going to lock the screen door with the window down. That way when we open the front door, we’re not exposed to whomever is on our porch. (They cannot open the screen door.) We can safely discuss the situation through the screen. Also, if the person at the door needs a phone, we can hand them the house wireless phone. (NOT our cell phones.)
Went to Longhorn after church since we spent so much time on the chaos this morning. Service went well and feedback was not an issue today.
Slept for THREE hours after getting home from Longhorn’s, I guess I was tired!
My glucose numbers were less than 100 for the last couple of days.
Spent a couple of hours putting my pills in my three dispensers tonight.
Cleaned four more hoses individually tonight. (I could not find these connections to do it all at once.)
We got up around 7:30 and I cranked up my HF radio to meet the HAM guys on the WW Net while I drank some coffee. Adjusted the alarm times on the pill dispensers so they are a better fit for our routines.
Her box of clothes from Amazon arrived and the pants were just a little on the large side. She loved the socks. Cod fish for lunch with mixed vegetables and sweet potatoes. We took a nap, and I went out for a much-needed haircut. Back home we walked up the block and back to get in some exercise now that her foot is better. We both made a sandwich and settled down for an episode of Castle.
Tuesday
I was in pain this morning, so I wrapped myself in two electric blankets that helped enough to go to bed. Worked on documenting our new pill schedule, I woke up late and she got lost on what she was supposed to be doing. Checked in on the WW net and sipped on a cup of coffee. No breakfast cept the bowl of cereal I had at 3AM this morning.
We had an endodontist appointment today at 10:40 and that ended the retreatment for the root canal that failed saving tooth #30. We went to Longhorn for lunch afterwards then home for a much-needed nap. I worked on the screen door for several hours tonight. The front door is sagging and taking the screen door with it. I’ve replaced that door several times and had it replaced once. They didn’t do a very good job and now it looks like the casing is failing.
Turkey on Rye with a couple rice cakes with creme cheese for dessert while we watched Castle. Her BP has settled down and it looks like the high BP is behind us!
Wednesday (Stormy)
It’s midnight and I am waiting on the storm front to arrive. The major appliances are off and the UPS units have clicked a couple of times since I got up about an hour ago.
We managed to get 2 boxes (with four bags each) of bad coffee from Amazon. They don’t smell very good, and they don’t even smell the same from bag to bag. Wally World has Santo Domingo coffee, we’ll get some tomorrow to try. According to Google Foo, Dominican Coffee has suffered from poor crops *Rust and imported coffee to meet production. EWE! Apparently, the whole bean coffee might still be Dominican, which may account for the significant price increase. Our son has latched on to a Texas Pecan flavored whole bean coffee which she likes too.
Thursday
Had eggs for breakfast with sausage links while I checked in on the HAM WW Net. Spent a large portion of the day filling the spare trays of the three dispensers we are using with our medicine. I sent a list to Emory and didn’t get a response. Her BP has been normal for several days! My GERD has been pretty bad tonight, not sure why. I ended up taking my Prilosec early to tame my stomach down a little. My mom fell and ended up in the hospital. I don’t know what that’s all about either.
Friday
Woke up late this morning and she had already eaten breakfast. To my utter surprise, she did not take her morning meds. We had to take them after she ate breakfast today. I had put her meds in my dispenser yesterday, so that didn’t help either. Seasoned chicken thighs for lunch today with sweet potatoes and frozen Normandy veggies. Dentist visit went ok, she was extremely nervous, so I held her hand this afternoon while the dentist cleaned her teeth. Her gums have receded further than mine so we’re trying to get a plan together before the bacteria gets a foothold again. Plan is to arrive first thing on Saturday.
Bought a bag of Great Value potato chips expecting them to be comparable to Lays.
Like EWE, not sure what the green ones were but I toss the bag in the garbage.
Saturday
Mom fell yesterday and was taken to the hospital. She is still there, and they are monitoring her heart, although I don’t know exactly what her situation is.
Called the dentist right after I checked in on the WW Net on my HAM radio. The recommendation was non-Alcohol mouthwash, electric toothbrush with very soft bristles, using a water pic and flossing around the sides of the tooth.
Longhorn chicken salad for lunch, we met a lady that had a sign that read “Need diapers, have two kids”. We gave her $100, she stood out there for another 30 minutes then disappeared. The police don’t tolerate pan handlers around the AMC theater, they’ll arrest them and take their money. (It’s illegal in Gwinnett Co.)
My schedule sheets in my Daytimer needs to be redone, I need to add all the dispenser times and adjust our eating schedule too. It has come to pass that our medicine needs to be taken on a schedule. We both took our meds by the handful in the morning and then again at night. Now I have three dispenser times, and she has five with her eight medications.
All of this would have been a nightmare without these dispensers. She has two of the newer ones so that her medication doesn’t move out of reach, and I have a slightly older one. It would cost over $130 to get a third newer one that has the red overdue LEDs for myself. They helped us solve a problem of high blood pressure events in the evenings!
I worked on my Daytimer schedule for about an hour. I fold it in half, punch holes in it and put it into my binder.
Sunday
Got up around 8AM and I was still a little groggy. I think I did a late check-in on the WW net though. No breakfast this morning as we headed for church services. This is the first time we were in person for many weeks now. We decided to eat at Longhorn even though we had chicken in the refrigerator that we both had forgotten about. Although it’s a pretty expensive meal, Longhorn salad was very good and my Glucose showed less than 100.
Posted the sermon to the website and took a good long nap before eating our traditional ham sandwich on rye bread while watching TV.
Off to bed, have not heard from Florida about mom.
Been a busy morning, got onto the WW Net and hear my uncle check in on the net as well. Talked to Paul for a little while about our computers for a little bit.
We filled her spare pill trays this morning and set her timer to 3x per day (Just like mine).
I ordered two more dispensers, just the tray is $20 so why not get all of it for $15
The attic is warm enough to maintain the temp of the home. We went down for our afternoon nap before we cooked Turkey Chili for dinner.
It’s a VERY NICE day outside, the sunny side of the home is 75 degrees. We didn’t get to go outside very much today, we’ve lost our bottles of sunscreen.
Even the attic fans got some exercise today.
Tuesday (Doc)
Heart doctor today so we’re up at 6AM. We ate breakfast at McDonald’s on the way home. The doc was “Unconcerned” about her BP and that threw us. We’ve spent so much time collecting BP readings over the last week. Boo
We ended up eating lunch at Longhorn’s and then home for our afternoon nap. We are still working on building a schedule so that we can be more productive. Having her out front with her requests takes up the entire day. We spend a good while trying to figure out clothes for her. Her stomach and hips are about the same size at 43 inches. She is also looking for summer shoes, but not tennis shoes. She also does not do things she finds difficult, like writing down things I ask her.
Supper was turkey on Rye bread with a few rice cakes and creme cheese while we watch Castle. I did find the sunscreen today, so walking is back on the table.
Wednesday (Church)
We had a great morning and got a lot done. Cooked Salmon for dinner and that turned out pretty well. (The veggies were a little mushy.) We drove the VAN to a used clothing store to look for some pants. The were usual sizes that are waay too small for her. We ended up looking online for Plus sizes and ordered a couple pants.
Church services went ok, but she didn’t get the E-Mail containing the link for the service for some reason.
I chatted with the same guy on my HF radio at 1AM that I did the day before. We talked until we both had to go to bed.
Thursday
We took our BP and Glucose this morning, these are my readings according to the time of day. I printed the reports and dropped them off at the doctor’s office. We do not know if the information warrants a doc visit, but we are sure he will.
Shower and get dressed, we’ve got a lot to do today.
I waited too long to cut them back. (They were already budding.)
I did cut them back anyway risking the bush.
Had to use a rake to carry the thorny branches.
Looks much better, unless the bush dies.
Salmon on Rye for dinner, we watched several episodes of Castle. Doc did not call us back today, I really thought he would. Left the garage door open tonight, it’s just a bit of luck that I found it. Nocturnal animals would love to make a home in a warm garage, cept maybe for all the noise in there.
Friday
Had scrambled eggs and breakfast sausages for breakfast. Checked into the WW Net with the HAM radio guys this morning. Spent an hour looking for women’s socks that we bought at Burlington Coat Factory to no avail, even used image search?
Spent an hour trying to get a check reissued that I didn’t cash. I have a feeling that I should have called the agent. Oops. They are sending a letter to verify I am the recipient.
I got two more used ones from EBAY and one of them was an “E” serial #!!! (Which saves me $150 bucks to buy one that has a dose overdue Red Light.)
With three doses per day and nine days per dispenser we need six of them to give us a 30 day supply in hand. (Did I mention I saved $120 getting these last two at $15)
Saturday
Checked in on the WW Net, 40M band is long. I didn’t hear most of the participants on the net this morning. We ate lunch at Longhorn and went to watch the grandkids at soccer practice. We were pretty tired after being up all day, a good long nap felt great. Her blood pressure is still high, so we played a game of scrabble.
She won.
Headed to bed.
Sunday
Had a terrible night, my feet started hurting after I laid down. I soaked them in warm water and that helped. My shingles also reared its ugly head even though I took medication for it earlier. I took 250mg of acetaminophen to reduce the pain and watched some TV, I wasn’t good for much else this morning. I did eat a bowl of cereal to settle my stomach. It took another 500mg before I was comfortable enough to get some sleep. When she woke up I took a hot shower and that helped too.
2 hard boiled eggs and coffee for breakfast while I checked in with the HAM guys on the WW Net. We ended up running to the doc in a box, but they were packed. The nearest fire station had just left the barn and the next one was empty when we got there. We ended up going to Longhorn for lunch. We stopped by the fire station on the way home and they checked her BP. They also gave us some good advice on what to do next. Our best bet is to gather documentation that provides a story, then the doctor might see the point we’re trying to present to him.
We spent a couple of hours looking up each medication and what is the best time to take it. We ended up using two dispensers with eight dispensing times to separate her medications to see if she improves. If we’d used one dispenser and were late taking the pills, they would be out of reach under the lid.
Had four eggs, breakfast sausages, rye toast with orange juice for breakfast.
We did a bit of planning and went to the shoe repair shop to fix her boot that the zipper ripped out on Sunday. The zipper got mangled trying to zip up boots that are just a bit too tight. I found two pair of this style in size 8 boots on EBAY, we’ll have to wait to see if they fit her. I thought for a while that the cuff of the boot rolled up to keep her warm in tall snow.
We went to Burlington Coat Factory to find some pants for her. After picking up a couple of prospects we headed to Longhorn in Suwanee for lunch. We had our usual strawberry chicken salad for lunch then headed home for a nap. I called in a prescription, and they said it would be ready at 18:00. I did pick up some 200 glucose test strips that were 30% off. (I’ve not seen them cheaper than CVS prices on Amazon which is strange considering CVS is waay high on a lot of things. They ARE cheaper on EBAY though.)
Checked in with the GARS Net on 2Meter repeater tonight. (It’s a good test of the equipment.)
Her BP is 150 ish and her HR is about 100 tonight, so we’re planning on resting. Her Glucose is also about 150 after having three Arnold Palmers for lunch. My BP was also like 138/74 tonight and I take BP medication to keep it from getting too high.
I added 1/2 500mg Wally World acetaminophen pill to MY evening pills. 250mg acetaminophen seems to take care of our needs in most cases. It’s also really easy to keep up with the dosing with a 90-minute pill dispenser/timer.
Tuesday
My fight or flight response is preventing me from getting any rest this morning. I ended up taking a nice hot bath to calm it down. Checked in on the HAM WW Net this morning while eating fried eggs and breakfast sausages. I am working up some new pages for our Daytimer procedure books, and it will be a work in progress.
I made 4 eggs, breakfast sausages and Rye toast for breakfast. She then asked if she could have the same for her. I gave her my plate and made another round for me. It was a strange happening, I asked her what she had and she said a bowl of cereal. (Her normal breakfast.) If she wants eggs the fastest way is to use the hard boiled egg cooker. Odd.
We went to BN and the removed all the attachments and then took pictures of all of her teeth for the next round of braces. They said I did a good job if cutting down the brace #20 so that it didn’t hang over her missing tooth gum.
We went to Longhorn again today. My Glucose was just over a 100 for like the third time today. Apparently, the strawberry salad at LH is a pretty good meal for seniors.
We both took a good long nap and the shoe guy never called about her boots. I did buy two pairs of size 8 boots of the same manufacturer and style used yesterday. They won’t be here until next week sometime. According to her she’s had them since before we dated. They are in excellent shape like she hasn’t worn them much. We’re only wearing them now because of her Plantar fasciitis.
My glucose ranges are not too bad, I need to cut back on the coffee.
Wednesday (Endodontist)
COLD morning this morning, going to be even colder tomorrow.
We had a large breakfast fried eggs and sausage with a bit of coffee. We took her blood pressure several times and it was not very high. (That’s a relief) She wore her o2 monitor and it showed that she was calm throughout the root canal.
We went to Longhorn (Again) for lunch and I allowed a bit of Cheese cake for dessert.
Back home for a much needed nap. Sandwiches for dinner and a couple of rice cakes with creme cheese on it.
Church services went well, but we were pretty tired.
I didn’t sleep very well, but my CPAP machine reported it did not have many events.
Thursday (Boot repair)
Picked up her repaired boots today, she’s really happy!
Got pretty cold this morning, we left some eggs on the porch for the neighbor. We’re pretty sure they didn’t spoil, LOL.
Light breakfast today, just a cup of coffee. We need to make a run to the grocery store. We ended up going to Publix and picking up most of the groceries then drove to Longhorn for lunch. We stopped by Aldi’s and got some meat after we had a bit of a nap. It’s pretty COLD outside even at 4PM with the wind upon us.
Rye bread sandwiches and rice cakes with creme cheese for dessert. We’re taking her blood pressure twice a day until we see the doctor.
Friday
Checked in with the HAM guys on the WW Net and tried my best to find out who keeps calling me about buying my home. Georgia Local Home Buyers is not a business name so there’s no one to complain too.
Two pairs of her favorite boots arrived today. They are a 1/2 size larger than the ones we had fixed this week. They should be just a bit easier to get on. (Except as it turns out, they are still new and will have to be broke-in LOL.)
We managed to get sick on something we ate or drank today. We both felt ill this afternoon, so it wasn’t the coffee. I didn’t feel ill until after we ate lunch which was chicken breasts from Aldi’s. It had a March use by date, and we brought it home in 30 degree weather. No idea, but she did not hold onto her lunch. My fingers are tingling, and my tinnitus is ringing. She laid down for a nap while I worked on raising the humidity above 30.
She slept with her new boots on LOL.
It’s about 6PM and my sour stomach has subsided. She is feeling better after emptying her stomach into the porcelain bowl. I managed to eat a ham sandwich on rye and have a few rice cakes with creme cheese on them. We both took our evening pills and then set down to take her blood pressure. The last few days we’ve done this the first reading is around 150/75, then after holding on to her for a minute or so it drops down to 135/72. Tonight was the first night that didn’t happen, she was afraid that I would get sick being so close to her. Her blood pressure didn’t drop tonight when I held her. The doctor was wondering why all the BP checks in the office were normal, but the ones from home are high. Our family is not as close as it once was, Trump politics have divided us. I heard someone say that family is more important than money, then proceeded to prove that wasn’t true over the next two years.
Saturday-Sunday
We had eggs for breakfast Saturday, and we were tossing around what to do about dinner since we wanted to go to Wally World for a few odds and ends. We ended up going to Longhorns for lunch and we saw our third familiar face while we were there.
I reorganized my pill dispensers to a 3x per day, that was a bit harder than I anticipated. We have ONE dispenser that is on a timer and the other four are just containers for the pill trays. When the tray in the timer dispenser gets empty we swap out from the spares to refill it. We move the 2nd spare into the spares and the empty tray goes into 2nd spare to get refilled at our next convenience. Like the 2x trays, we have 28 days worth of medicine IN HAND. After I did mine, we did hers on Monday so that we both are taking pills together 3X per day.
We watched Castle while eating rice cakes with creme cheese and then headed to bed.
