I’ve been more than remiss in communication.
As you may know I had round #2 with cancer–breast cancer—which I got out of with a lumpectomy and no complications, but — radiation, etc. and as many as 8 doctor visits a month….which kind of takes the starch out of you. Just not enough energy to get to things….
And ‘things’ have sadly included WWAS….FB’s been a little easier, because there I just react.
But WWAS has been, well, — I haven’t had the energy to spare. I was going great guns on the next book until the second cancer round, and I’m ABOUT getting enough energy to take it up again—but—
Anyway, still love you all. It’s just been weird. I’ve always had energy to spare, and it’s hard to pace myself when I don’t.
Not for want of caring.
Best to all of you. Profound apologies for those who’ve tried to get onto this page that I haven’t had the strength to go through (literally: I’m not kidding: 14,000 emails (most from Russia and Albania) to try to sort out legitimate new members. I hate loose bots! Anyway, I’m doing all right, trying to bounce back from the second bout and the radiation, just not as much spring in the bounce as I used to have; and hoping that I won’t have a third. Genetics says I have a proclivity to this kind of problem—but I think I’ve had my statistical share now, if you please!
Love you all.
—CJ
Indeed, a Happy New Year to all salads!
Our God-Daughter came over this afternoon because she couldn’t on Christmas Eve (when she traditionally does) and has just left. I had a fun time baking popovers and pulling out the remains of the Christmas cookies I had made and we dined in front of a fire. I think we only do a fire in the fireplacewhen she comes over and asks for it. We should do them more often but normally a chair piled high with books and project bits sits in front of the fire place (it’s a pretty tiny house and waaaaay to many books and projects, storage space for which we ran out several years ago. Cleaning now consists of shuffling the books, etc. from one spot to another).
Last week through Christmas & Boxing Day was cold & snowy; unusual these years to have snow on the ground for Christmas in the Boston area. Yesterday it turned quite warm and the snow has melted into a heavy fog and dripping water. Perversely, that warmth makes for much better weather for a fire because the fire sucks so much air through the unsealed spaces of our old, uninsulated house… and then let’s so much heat out the flu-open chimney that we actually didn’t have a fire on the frigid Christmas Eve as we had originally planned.
Happy New Year, Salads! Maybe ’25 won’t be as bad as we fear?
After all the noise last night scaring off the evil spirits, I awoke this morning only to discover when I got online, no such luck!
I hope CJ and Jane are okay. It’s been a while since they’ve posted here; are they still posting on FaceBook? Maybe they’re just annoyed or depressed at the current state of affairs in the US. Even Canada, the most calm and mild-mannered neighbor, scolded us!
And ugh! My dishwasher, after performing flawlessly for 4 or 5 years, developed a leak. After research, I determined that the most likely cause is a flaw in the sprayer arm, which now flings water under the door where the gaskets can’t divert it. I have a new part on order, which will hopefully correct the problem.
The power transformer for the apt building I live in blew out at 5:15 Tuesday morning. (I checked the clock – I have battery-powered clocks, from experience with 0-dark-hundred power outages.) They got it replaced in 8 hours, including waiting for the suction truck to show up and remove all the oil from the old transformer. I think the explody one was all of 30 years old.
Yes, CJ is posting a lot on Facebook, political & personal. She (and Jane, I gather) are doing well now. They are trying a new diet; cats are well, bonsai tips are being shared. In December, CJ was essentially poisoned by the medical establishment when they gave her an injection to do some procedure (I think) but she turned out to be severely allergic to the injection. That took many weeks of pain and counter procedures/medications to bring her back to normal functioning, including getting back into her fun, Oculus exercise routine. Oh, and she and Jane are slowly taking down their Christmas decorations.
…I’ll see if I can repost some of her more personal life updates from Facebook over the next few days.
Really welcome Facebook post from CJ a few hours ago:
“Just back from the 3 yr post-cancer colonoscopy—looking good, per the original surgeon, who tells me (pending labs) that he will see me again in 5 years.
I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to get this done as young as possible—re your insurance. If you win the unwelcome surprise, as I did, it is highly curable if caught early, and you also win a return visit to the GI guy in 3 years, and again in 5, which pretty well justifies it with your insurance company. I was incredibly lucky: I was literally about one week from a problem spreading into a catastrophe—I was stage III. Now my GI guy is proudly pitching me out the door with a ‘looks good, see you in 5….’
Get that test done as early as your insurance will allow it. Your GP can set it up for you and handle all the paperwork. Yes, prep is a pain for 24 hours. But you’ll live.
That is, in fact—the point.”
That’s fabulous!
Thanks for the updates!
More from CJ on Facebook today:
“Chemo and recovery. My hands have been in pretty bad form because, well, chemo, —which I do not complain about. Believe me, I *love* chemo for what it did. I also work on regaining strength and precision—a lot. I do Supernatural (MetaQuest) 3x a week—and recently I got the urge to paint. Which is a practice AND a precision issue. Understand, I sketch, and I’m still pretty good at it. But painting is a) a different set of muscles and b) involves color, which is a challenge I’ve never ‘gotten.’ So—I thought about those old paint-by-number items. I’m NOT good, since chemo, about holding something steady, but I think I can do it.
I don’t believe in the little lines and numbers. The lines are to blend and overpaint at need, the numbers are sort of a guideline, eh? and there are techniques to painting fur, eg, which require things like a palette knife and some special work on another surface before you’re ready. But Jane being an artist, for real, and having an enviable supply of brushes and stuff—I think it’s worth a try. I’ve got three canvases, two of cats in 17th century dress—and a dead-easy one, your typical lighthouse on a cliff. So we’ll see if I can identify a lighthouse after I’m done, and whether I’m ready to tackle the (much more intricate) cats—eh?”
Paint-by-number comes in all levels and styles these days – I have some, for my future amusement, and one I finished that’s hanging on a door where I can enjoy it (desert scene, red-rock buttes with assorted plants between you and them). The’ll never look professional, but they’re acceptable.
So I can say that my analysis and deployment of Operation Dishwasher was successful; the leak seems to have been fully fixed after spray arm replacement and 3 subsequent runs. Replacing the dishwasher would have been at least $4-500, calling a repairperson would have probably run around $300+, and me doing the diagnosis and repair cost $50. Huzzah!
On discovering the malfunctioning dishwasher, DH suggested we look at our major appliances and see if any of them should be replaced before all the tariffs etc. took effect and we would end up paying double (if any were to be had and we could afford it.) The only thing that was really on my radar was our stacking washer and dryer, both of which have had a couple of minor issues in recent years and are over 10 years old. I found a similar stacking set and ordered it for delivery mid-April; half again as costly as my original set, but that was again more than a decade ago. Let us hope the big box store doesn’t lose my order and we get the machines and they are as reliable as the last set. Meanwhile, I can likely sell the old set once I get the new, they still work fine at the moment.
Planning ahead! Way to go!
And, great diagnostic skills!
CJ just posted this on Facebook about an hour ago:
“Completed my 144th week unbroken string—Oculus/Meta 3x a week. Yay me. Jane, too.
It’s been a great help in rehab after all the medical stuff. I haven’t mentioned precisely how—but it’s not all swinging at balloons. My balance had gotten iffy, and my endurance wasn’t fit for much. The program has warmups and cooldowns, and they’ll ask you to step, or move, and sometimes to balance—couldn’t even stand to do it when I started; now I’m willing to balance on one foot and at least lift and touch the other—not grab hold of my ankle, not ready for that, nope, but just the act of balance matters. It’s made the diff between a sedentary and increasingly sedentary life—or being able to go places and do things. And I’m now doing the same exercises as Jane in many instances—not at her level, but I’m doing many of them. Which, when you consider I started out ‘seated’ because of balance issues—is big. So glad, Andrea, you put us onto this. Bigtime.”
Another CJ FaceBook post: a couple weeks ago, her and Jane’s stove died and much cogitation & consultation resulted in this decision:
“The range isn’t here yet—tomorrow!
But the pots we’ll use with it have arrived!
I’m in the kitchen cooking, and thinking—gee, last time I’ll be cooking with these. All going away—I hope to someone who’ll enjoy them: there’s a lot of life left in them.
But not, alas, in our range, which blew a control board that costs half the cost of a brand new range to replace. So—
We’re going 21st century. Induction. Fancy oven that bakes faster. Cooktop that cooks way fast.
I’ve got some ‘larnin” to do. And these pots are a replacement of all the pots I use plus one I don’t. An 8″ skillet, a 10″ skillet, a 12″ skillet (it looks to be, at least,) a large and a small saucepan, what they deem a chicken fryer (steep-sided skillet) and a two-handled large stewpot. (the chicken fryer is kind of foreign to me: I may be a southern cook, but fried chicken is something I’ve never done. I’m not a fan. But—I’ll find use for it. Spaghetti sauce, maybe… )
The brand is Henckels Paradigm. I hope to goodness they’re friendly. They weigh a ton. I was quite surprised bringing the box in. I haven’t opened them yet: I’ll wait for Jane, who is out trying to evict grape hyacinth from the Japanese maple’s area, by the lily pond. (We started with a little. It was cute. Now—)
Anyway, she’ll be excited—we’ll unpack it and probably pack away all my (sob) familiar pans. Whole new world comin’ tomorrow, when the range gets here.”
And a short, frustrated FaceBook post by CJ today:
“Well, our new induction range got here, and it’s beautiful.
But it still doesn’t work.
Because we have a 3-prong range plug. And it needs a 4-.
Sigh. So here it sits, all beautiful. But unpowered.
We have called our regular electricians. This surely will not be a big deal, if they can spare someone to come do this Monday.”
And more CJ from Facebook:
From yesterday:
We went plant shopping. I’ve always threatened to get pansies. I got a purple, a red, an orange and a purple/white. And then I found a lewisia—which I had only just heard about on a British gardening show.
Named after Lewis of Lewis & Clark. It’s actually an American native of our region, yet—a succulent that doesn’t look like one, a perennial, and comes in gorgeous colors. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewisia
Got a few other things, too. And Jane’s got a ‘raised bed’ box for some veggies. We’ll see how this works. I’d really like a tomato plant. Maybe a bell pepper plant. She wants green beans. It’s not THAT large a planter!
And then from today:
Thought I had the steam to plant our 5 pansies and the Lewisia….
Well, I did it: I spaded and weeded our best bed, which was dead easy—my balance is improved enough that I could use my foot on the spade. I got all the weeds dislodged. And I got the pansies planted—serious roots on those! and I rested a bit and went out back—too tired to go fetch the spade from the front, so I used the pick-mattock and dug a big enough hole for the Lewisia. They’re a succulent and grow among rocks, so I gave it a rock next to its roots, figuring maybe it would help it stay cool.
At that point I’d had it. Gasp.
So I came in, set up lunch prep (main meal) and sat. Am sitting. I feel as if I’d had a major gym session. But I WAS able to use the spade, which is a balance challenge, if you’ve ever had a prolonged period when you couldn’t stand and balance on one foot. Yay me.
I am now tired. It’s going to be some kind of chicken and veggies over cauliflower rice sort of lunch. We will see. Jane’s out fixing the pond leak and she’s going to come in all over mud and probably vexed—nothing ever goes smoothly when you’re dealing with pond liner and mud. So I’ll wait until she recovers her appetite before I cook anything. Fishpond mud also does not dispose one to a lot of appetite.