My Weblog

Yuck! Double yuck!

It has been a tough day. I DID go put gasoline in the van. That's it. I have an appointment at DMV on Tuesday afternoon at 3:30. I managed to get the trash out to the outside bin and the bin to the curb. Honestly, I don't feel like I've accomplished much more than that. 

My head is so congested you could swim in it. My chest is still congested and I am coughing up phlegm. The phlegm is still clear but there's plenty of it. I have a very low grade fever, like 98.8-99. And I feel unwell. 

And I feel that I HAVE to go to work tomorrow. Because of the oddity of my schedule, if I call in sick, it will look like I just wanted 5 days off in a row. That will not go down well with the powers that be. The Lord and I have been discussing that!

I did order a new mouse and keyboard. I REALLY want to get rid of this keyboard that was loaned to me. It is a real piece of garbage. It might not be quite such a mess if stuff hadn't been spilled all over it, gluing some of the keys together, but............ 

Other than that, I've emptied the dishwasher but that's honestly about it for the day so far. Fortunately, I still have a few hours to accomplish a bit more if I can drag my sickly behind around long enough to do that. Anyway, I need your prayers, as always.

The morning after reline day.........

Well, so far, I'd have to say it was worth the fight. Thank you, Lord, the teeth are back in. And, I kinda think they are gonna stay! My mouth is a little sore. He added material to the uppers that makes the pink stuff on the front go up higher and that part of my mouth is not used to having anything there. It's just a tiny bit sensitive but no problem. I haven't put any goop on them and they feel reasonably secure. However, I have no clue how the day is going to go so I will probably do that before I leave the house.

I took a look at my "grocery list". It has 3 things on it and only one of those is reasonably urgent. That one item I can grab at Trader Joe's which will be MUCH quicker than going to Smart & Final. So, maybe that is what I will do. I do work only one day before I have another 2 days off. (How the heck did THAT happen? Happy circumstance..........)

I MUST get gasoline in the van. 

I MUST do the DMV thing SOON. My alternative is to schedule an appointment for 3:30 on Tuesday afternoon. That might make better use of my time. Hopefully it would minimize the time involved in sitting around doing nothing but waiting. In any case, it HAS to be done before 12/18/17 when the Driver's License expires. I also have to do some research on the "REAL ID" thing. This renewal will be for 8 years and will overlap the advent of airlines requiring "REAL ID" for flying. I have NO intention of flying anywhere. I don't see any need in my future to spend money that is in short supply on airline tickets. But, something might come up. I might win a contest. What if I won a cruise to somewhere but had to fly to Miami to take advantage of my winnings. It's highly unlikely, but more likely than me deciding to just spend money and fly somewhere. I'm not a "do it on short notice" kind of person. Anyway if I decide to do the "REAL ID" thing, I will need to dig up some additional documents. (Do YOU know off the top of your head where your birth certificate is? Me neither.........) 

Other than that little list of things to be done, I need to deal with the baked butternut squash that needs to be pureed and dehydrated. 

Anything beyond the minimum listed above is pure gravy. And to tell you the truth, I feel like crud. My head is remarkably congested and I am still coughing up phlegm. Coughing up more phlegm, I think, than I was last week. You can hear "the congestion" in my voice.........But the O2 level is still good and the sputum is clear so, so far, so good. But, you can't imagine how much I just want to crawl back in bed..........We'll see what I manage to get done.

That stuff is good!

I now have 3 butternut squash waiting to be processed. I've cut them in half, removed the stem and blossom ends and baked them face down on a cookie sheet. Then I scooped as much meat as possible away from the skins. I put most of the innards in a big bowl to get it ready for dehydrating. But, honestly, I couldn't help myself--I kept sneaking bites on the way from my work surface to the bowl. I am, quite honestly, amazed at how sweet that stuff is. 

For years I've baked and served winter squash--usually acorn or what is sometimes known as Hubbard squash. Always, after scraping out the seeds and stringy stuff, I've added butter and honey or butter and brown sugar. At this point I am asking myself why. You could easily turn that squash into a pie and get away with barely adding any sugar at all. 

Next I will add water to the squash and with the immersion blender, turn it into a liquid that is of a much thinner consistency than it is now. Then it will be spread onto the fruit leather "trays" and be placed into the dehydrator. When it is thoroughly dry, I'll take it off the trays and turn it into a powder. Then, to serve it as a side dish, I will just need to add water and allow it to refresh, season it, warm it up, and serve. Or I can sneak a little bit of the powder into soups or muffins or whatever to add some "stealth nutrition". Of course, it won't be very stealthy since I'll be doing the cooking and will know it's in there, LOL. I'm looking forward to having this available to boost my vitamin and mineral intake. Lots of Vitamin A, B6, folate, magnesium, potassium, and lots of other good things as well as fiber. 

I've about had it for today. I'm going to head to bed shortly. I want to be up early so I can arrive at DMV before the crowds are too big...........

A definite improvement..........

I fixed some gyoza (pot stickers) for dinner. I was not successful at biting them. However, with goop, the lower plate stayed in place and even worked while chewing. The upper plate, without goop, did not hold as well, but still MUCH better than prior to today. Oh, Glory Hallelujah! There's food on the horizon and I just might be able to eat it even if it's not pureed or cut into minute bits. With goop, maybe the uppers will even stay in place. 

So, no biting, but, at least, eating.............And I didn't utter a single swear word.......Surely the Lord had a hold on my tongue..........

Better is not the same as good.........

Well, I just got the dentures back. The upper plate is actually staying in place without goopy glue. The lower plate, not so much. He told me this morning that he was going to make them "tight". Well, they were so "tight" I couldn't get them on. He removed some of the material and I STILL could not get them on. Finally, we got to where they are "tighter" than they were, but they're still loose. Which means I will need to continue with the goopy glue. UGH! But, there is hope that with the goopy glue, they might stay in place for more than 3 hours. Maybe I can even eat in them with the goopy glue. Wouldn't that be a wonder? 

My smile is still off kilter. And visually the bottom teeth rotate just slightly to the left while the top teeth rotate just slightly to the right. Well, honestly, that's how my teeth were to begin with, my REAL teeth. It's not much. So little in fact that an orthodontist pronounced it to be not worth messing with in that my teeth were relatively straight. It's the equivalent of about 1/3 of a tooth off. Of course, my smile was not off kilter..........but I can live with that if I can eat something other than infant bites of food!

Now, here it is, almost dark, and I haven't been able to accomplish any of my goals for today. I don't even know if I should attempt to unload anything from the van. As it stands, the door is wedged shut, but it took two of us to do it. What if I can't get it shut again? I have a heavy duty headache, probably the result of the very stressful day, and I don't know what I can actually accomplish with darkness looming and a raging headache.

I guess I will worry about that tomorrow or Saturday and Sunday when I am home again. 

One of the things on the agenda for tomorrow is the grocery store. I checked the two stores I frequent and I really didn't see any "bargains" that tweaked my fancy. I will need a few little things, but not much. Phew! Primarily I will need something to fit in my pocket at work to keep me going through the hours between meals. And half and half. I will probably try to pull together enough ingredients for one cooked meal of some sort. That always leaves me leftovers for several meals..........

So, I think I will try to get started on the butternut squash. At least that will warm up the house and I'm chilly today. I'm wearing a cotton sweater which is obviously not heavy enough to do the trick. 

Later folks..............

I REALLY don't like those people..........

I REALLY don't. 

I just got back from the dentist's office and I'm pretty sure I should not take my blood pressure for at least an hour. I think if I took it now, I'd probably scare myself into a heart attack.

They trotted in some new dentist that I've never seen before. He started off by telling me I should get implants. Well, I asked about implants when this whole mess started. And guess what they told me: you are not a candidate for implants because the bone in your jaw is too badly eroded. But today, I'm a candidate. No, just a dentist flapping his jaws to try to make money. Of course, I need to see a specialist, a friend of his (can you say "kickback on referral"?) would be just the guy for me to see. 

Now, it is possible that the Lord has decided that He will divinely cause the bone in my jaw to regrow. Perhaps He has seen what I've been through and has taken pity? I don't think that's impossible at all, but wouldn't new x-rays be required to show that? Yes, of course they would.

Then they tell me that they are going to do a "hard reline" which will cost me money. No, I don't think so. I was told I'd be entitled to 3 free relines. This would be the reason I've gone back over and over trying to get someone to do something. I will have a FREE reline and I don't care whether it's a soft or a hard reline! It will be free because that's what I was promised. I finally got the office manager to agree to that...........

Then I was told that if I was having so much trouble I should have come back. I DID go back. And the last time I went back, "the boss", the doctor who runs or owns the practice flat out told me they weren't going to do anything til 6 months had passed! So, it's now 5 months and 3 weeks. Close enough, or else.

Then they trotted in the "lab guy". He tells me he doesn't know whether or not he's going to do a hard or a soft reline til he takes impressions. Oh God!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I nearly upchucked in my lap during the other impressions. That gunk runs down the back of my throat and I gag. I can't help that and I can't control it. 

He puts the teeth in and takes them out and puts them in and takes them out repeatedly. Then he tells me I am biting wrong. Well, I'm biting like I bite with these teeth. That's the way it is. 

Finally he fills the plates with goop and sticks them in, top plate first. And, sure enough, the goop starts to run down the back of my throat. And I gag. And I mess up his impressions. Worse, I didn't bite the way he wants me to bite! Well, guess what, dude? That's unnatural for me with these teeth! 

So we start over. This time, at least, he did the bottoms first so that I did not have to sit with my head tilted back allowing gravity to take its course. So, I didn't gag. And he got my bite arranged the way he wanted it. Fun part: He had the uppers pushed so far forward that the inside part of my lips (I'm sure there's a better name for that but I'm also sure you can figure out what I mean) is pushing down behind the plate! To me, that says that if his way was what my bite was supposed to be, he royally goofed up the plate in the first place. What do you think? 

So the lab guy at least asked me how the teeth were doing. It took me a while to piece together what he meant (he is either eastern European or Russian). So, first I thanked him because he is the first one to ask that question with any level of expertise above dental assistant. So I told him. I told him how they pop loose while I'm talking to customers, I told him how I lost 7.5 pounds the first two months because I couldn't eat. I told him how I still can't bite and I still can't chew, how the only way I can eat anything is if I take the bottom plate out and gum it to death or swallow it whole. I told him about having to make an emergency run to CVS in the middle of my work day to buy Poligrip and how now I don't go to work without the stuff because they inevitably come loose at all sorts of times. I told him how nothing occludes with anything no matter how I hold my mouth. His eyes widened to the size of quarters. Then he wanted to know why I didn't come back. So I told him I HAD come back and the last time I came back, I was told they weren't going to do anything for me til it had been 6 months since extraction. Then he told me that "these folks around here, they don't care anything about people. All they care about is making the money."

So, now tell me something I haven't already figured out............

Anyway, supposedly everything is going to be beautiful by 2:30. We'll see about that.............

It's a good thing........

On November 3, I labeled 8 jars of split pea soup and put them on my shelf. I made them for cheap--part of a ham steak and a bit of leftover ham I pulled from the freezer, dried peas, carrots and onions and whatever spices I might have added to the "brew". Tonight, for the first time, I popped open one of the jars. That soup makes that crap that is sold commercially taste like sickly green wallpaper paste. I'm so glad I took the time to do this and now I have 7 more pints of soup to enjoy! That's all.......

One of the dreaded days has passed..........

or at least mostly passed. Today would have been my 15th wedding anniversary. I was tempted to take myself out to dinner, but I thought that would be more depressing than being home with Parker so here I am. 

I have the results of a small experiment to report to you. I got a buy on some Crocs a few weeks ago. Managed to land a pair or relatively ordinary looking flats for half price. I have now worn them to work two days and so far, my feet have reacted very well to them. My feet are still tired when I leave the store, but, remarkably, less painful than those days I have worn the running shoes I usually wear. To say I am surprised would be an understatement. But, I am certainly thrilled. I paid $14 plus a few bucks shipping for the Crocs. My running shoes cost around $70 give or take depending on the best deal I can find. I decided to give this idea, which actually seemed a little crazy to me, a try and perhaps it's a happy thing! Less pain, less money gone from my pocket. I'll take that anytime!

I have been trying to figure out what I'm going to do with the butternut squash I have left. They were the produce loss leader at Sprouts a few weeks ago and I bought 10 of them, I think. Well, 4 of them made 8 pint jars of canned squash. I honestly don't have a whole lot of storage space for my canned goods, so I don't want another 12 jars to store (particularly 12 more jars of the same thing)............... I've hit on the idea of dehydrating the squash and turning it into a powder. The powder will probably all fit in one quart jar because all the water will be removed. Then I can simply use the powder, refresh it with hot water and eat squash for a good while. And it will store well as a powder for a long period of time if I vacuum seal the jar! 

I think I told you a while back that cutting up the squash was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Well, I musta had a weird one. The last two murdered my hands. If I dehydrate them, I have to cut them in half and scrape out the seeds, but I do not have to then peel them while they're hard AND cut them into bite-sized cubes! That all adds up to a win-win in my mind. Additionally, the dehydration process takes a while, so I may be able to spread it out over a few more days than canning would entail which will also save my hands. 

I now have 2 days off in a row. Thank you, Jesus. Tomorrow I have one errand I have to run: I go to the dentist. In theory they will do a soft reline on these "teeth". If they turn me away again, I just might get violent. Only with God's help will I be anything less than foul-mouthed. I have now developed a rampant dislike for those people which has developed over 6 months of life altering changes. I regret I didn't let every tooth in my mouth rot out before I let them do what they recommended. They had better treat me with kid gloves! As it is, the teeth look weird, but it would help a whole lot if I could eat normally. 

I was toying with the "out to dinner" idea on the way home. Then I decided that was just out of the question. What restaurant serves oatmeal for dinner? And, if not oatmeal, then what would I dare to try to eat in public? 

They had better figure this out and figure it out quickly.

Thursday, much as I hate the thought, I will go to DMV. As of now, I need to renew my driver's license AND I want that handicapped sticker/license plate. I have to go to DMV for the driver's license, so I may as well handle the other at the same time.

Other than that, I will need to unload a bunch of stuff from the van, a little bit at a time. I bought a VERY heavy shelf unit at the store during the Black Friday sale. A big husky male boy/man whined about how heavy it is, so you can be sure I won't be able to get the box out of the van. I'll have to crawl into the van, open the box, and then pull out one piece at a time and drag it into the garage. Once I get that all moved, there is a 50 pound bag of dog food and a 3-gallon bottle of water to unload. My van should do much better on fuel consumption when I get all of that out of her, LOL.

Oddly, I work Friday and then have another 2 days off. And what comes next is the hours slowdown--that time of year, just before Christmas, when they start cutting everyone's hours and thus everyone's paychecks so the managers can get a bigger bonus at fiscal year end. Gotta love corporate America.

I have coughed up a good bit of phlegm but it's clear which is good. The oxygen level is still good. So, I think I'm gonna get through this lung thing, whatever it is. Anyway, it's looking better as the days pass. I have resorted to the nebulizer twice now and will probably give it another whirl tonight, just to be on the safe side. Then I think maybe I can pack it away til the next siege.

That's it for now. I hope you've had a good day. I am going to go see if my bed is in good shape. Of course, I'll have to get in it for a little while, just to be sure...........

Pulled out the big guns..........

I am better today than I was yesterday, but I am coughing up crap. Not a lot, but still........... So, much as I didn't want to, I pulled out the nebulizer. I know that for me this is a risk of muscle spasm. Back in April, when I was so sick, I used the nebulizer a lot and ended up going back to work and having a really awful muscle spasm in my neck while I was standing at the register. I am hoping maybe I won't need to use the nebulizer as much and therefore this won't happen again. But, for now, I have the shakes which frequently happens when I use the nebulizer.

I have not had the persistent hack/hack asthma cough today. But when I've coughed, it's been a "real" cough. I am keeping an eye on my blood oxygen level and also on my temperature. If I spike a temperature or the blood oxygen starts to go down, I'm headed to an Urgent Care.

We were busy again. I spent the early part of my shift in Lumber. Even that area which is usually pretty quiet was busier than I expected for a Sunday. Usually a major portion of our business down there happens on weekdays when contractors are buying supplies for jobs. I think today folks figured out that the wait time would be less there than "in the middle". Again, my break came late. I don't mind that as much as you might think. At least, with a late break, when I come back, I don't have as long to work. But, I'm guessing my break came late because they didn't have enough people to relieve folks for breaks and lunches. I know I looked around in the afternoon and we had 5 registers going! 

At one point I had a customer who had a product that needed to be marked down. The mark down was 25% and so was big enough to need a managerial override on the transaction. I called the head cashier which is the established procedure. She did not come. Instead, she told me to call a manager. I can't think why this would happen except that she was slammed up front. I've never had that happen before............

I am going to head to bed early tonight. I want to give this body as much recuperation time as I can. I still have 2 days to work before my next scheduled time off. Thank goodness, this time it will be two days, not one of those singletons where I seem to manage to sleep more than work............

Between now and the time I cash in my chips, I am going to spend some time trying to pull my desk back together. Two housecalls from the computer guys has left it all topsy turvy.

I hope you had a good day today. See you tomorrow...........

 

 

Feelin' like garbage............

Well, my back hurt and I went to work anyway. Then my feet hurt and I stayed at work anyway. Now my chest hurts and I need to go to work tomorrow. Don't get excited. It's not a heart attack or anything. It seems to be a major asthma attack, maybe even the start of pneumonia. 

For the last couple of days I have coughed. It's that hack-hack cough that people in my family seem to endure when their asthma is acting up. Today I coughed and coughed at work. Things improved when I got in the car. They're still better than they were at work though I'm surrounded by dog hair and dust. So far, the blood oxygen is okay, but my heart rate is elevated. So, I took my nighttime meds an hour or so early to give my heart "support". And I've been taking benedryl. The benedryl seems to have a beneficial effect on the cough, lessening the frequency a LOT. Hence, my conclusion that this is an allergy/asthma thing.

I may have to pull the nebulizer out before bedtime. I REALLY do not want to do that. I use albuterol in the nebulizer and a side effect of albuterol is muscle cramps. NOT something I look forward to............

We were busy again today. This morning the staff was pretty threadbare but, as folks scheduled for later shifts started to arrive, it got better. Only one person had called in sick and she had surgery a couple of weeks ago and hasn't come back to work since. We also had one person out of vacation. My conclusion is that both of these absences were predictable and should have been accounted for in the scheduling. I'm not amused. I don't want to go to work and stand around staring at the ceiling, though it DOES give me extra time to pray. BUT, I would like enough time to grab a swig of water from time to time. 

Last week I paid someone to carry two heavy printers to the curb to be trashed. The garbage guys drove right past them. Friday morning I put my big trash bin out at the curb. The garbage guys drove right past it (while emptying everyone else's trash.......). Now, what's this all about? I dunno...

I ordered something from Zulily last week--a canning ladle. I've been working with what seems like a BIG ladle til you start to use it to fill up canning jars. Then it's a big nothing. So I ordered the canning ladle. The price was good, and even paying for shipping, it still compared favorably to Amazon. I do NOT love their business model. They don't maintain an inventory. Instead, when they get an order, they contact the manufacturer, purchase the product, have it delivered to them and THEN ship it to the customer. I'm thrilled to have the ladle, but I'm a spoiled Amazon prime customer. I'm not used to waiting weeks for something I order.......

I think I told you that a few weeks ago, they passed around a memo (and made everyone sign it) saying no eating at the registers and nothing to drink but water in see-thru bottles. Well, they relented a little on the food thing. It changed to "you can keep something in your pocket to nibble on. You just can't have anything sitting out where it's visible." Okay, that I can live with. The water thing has been a problem. I very much love and value my insulated stainless steel cups. They keep my water cold all day. I ordered a see-thru water bottle to use but have been waiting for that far longer than I should have. So. every night I've been filling an empty Gatorade bottle with water and freezing it overnight. However, it doesn't thaw for hours unless I give it a couple of minutes in the microwave in the morning before I leave for work. I am really NOT comfortable with that. So, today, finally, the water bottle I ordered arrived. We'll see how it works. In the meantime, one of the women who works up in Customer Service was carrying around a stainless steel water bottle. According to her the "blessed one" saw it, took the lid off, and smelled it, as though looking for alcohol. Pardon me, but I think that is illegal.............

So, those are my words for tonight. I think I'm going for that nebulizer now..........