catching up

It's been rather busy around here the past week or so.  Last week I went up to Putnam to see Bob and Wini and to take them out for lunch.  We went to "Someplace Special" where we all had the eggplant meal.  It was great!  Next time I might try the eggplant grinder.

Then we went to get Bob's coat that I had dropped off at the cleaner's.  They were able to get a lot of the grime off of it, but not all.  It's a shame...a LL Bean, down coat with down hood and he didn't clean it often enough.  Oh well, the zipper works and the coat is very light weight but warm, so he can use it for kicking around at home. 

I had another talk with Wini about accepting help in the home.  I reassured her again that there is plenty of money to pay for it and asked her to look at her schedule and let me know when we could make an appointment at the Homemaker agency.  

When I went home and told Sandy, she suggested that I go ahead and make the appointment for next Tuesday as I'm going back up there anyway to take Bob and Wini to see Dr. Botta.  What a great idea!   I called and the agency is going to send someone to the house on Tuesday afternoon.  AND, they will talk with Dr. Botta and HE will tell Wini about the appointment, to help keep me from being the "bad guy."

Wini was asking me about our Direct TV service, saying that they don't get many channels on their cable system...they don't want to pay for more channels.  She was wondering if she could get more channels with Direct Tv without having to pay more.   I had a brilliant idea last night while I was sitting on the potty (another night on the pot).  I am going to use some of Bob's money to get them a large, flat screen tv and increase their channels on the cable system.  I'll pay for the increased channels too. 

If Wini doesn't see the money going out, she won't worry about it so much.  I'm going to take part of his checking account and savings account money and open a separate account for his behalf.  I'll pay for the lady to clean the house, the home maker/health aide people and the cable bill from that account.  This will help keep Wini calmer about the money, and since she won't have a cable bill to pay, puts more money into her pocket, which might make her happier.

If I do get a new tv for them--they always LOVE our huge flat screen tv...then I will insist that all the other televisions in the cellar get pitched out, except for one.  I think I counted four televisions down there.  We have multiple tvs in our house, but at least we have hook-ups for each of them!  I did get rid of a couple of TVs we had and I know that you have to either donate them to Goodwill or some organization like that or leave them by the side of the road out front with a  FREE sign on them.  None of your friends ever seem to want a huge ancient television.

I think Wini will benefit from an HD tv set.  She has poor vision, not like "eagle eye Miller" and it will help her to be able to read the scores in ball games, etc.

I feel as though a weight has lifted a bit, with the thought that maybe, just maybe, we'll be getting help into the home for Bob and for Wini.  Brian and I have been communicating more lately for their benefit and he is reinforcing things with her that I discuss with her.

Tuesday I went for my workout with Jessica, but got there late due to getting an unexpected phone call as I was leaving the house...we agreed to reschedule the workout to Friday.  I stayed and worked out on my own for 40 minutes...and did well.

On Thursday I had to go for the CT scan I should have had before last week's chemo.  Sue told me to make sure I wore my lucky shoes...and to hold a lucky penny face up in my hand during the scan.  I did as told.  Hoping that all is well.  I have been having some abdominal pains after I eat, but that could have been from the sit-ups I foolishly did in my last work-out.  I just say no to sit-ups now. 

The chemo is building up in my system again.  I'm having the nose bleeds again, the taste problems again and my mouth is very sensitive.  The taste and sensitivity collude to help me to lose weight.  I continue to drop weight steadily averaging over a pound a week now.  I don't mind that at all.  I can wear my grey corduroy slacks again, yay!   

I just hope that the chemo doesn't become toxic.  That is the big danger and would cause them to stop giving it to me and switch to a different drug.  The side effects of Avastin can be very bad in the extreme.   I hope that it stays at this level and there isn't a larger, cumulative effect. 

The weather has me very busy.  I put out the deck furniture last week, did some raking and started thinking about the garden.  This year I want to plant some eggplant, winter squash, and maybe sweet potatoes, in addition to my roma tomatoes, grape tomatoes and herbs.  Sandy plants the rest of the stuff.

It's March Madness and the UConn men have already eliminated themselves from the running.  The women won handily today, look forward to seeing Monday's game.  I love this time of year.  So much basketball to watch!   AND, in between I can catch some Red Sox preseason games!

We are planning more trips in the RV for this year.  We might be going to New Hampshire for Labor Day Weekend...to Camp Wag-it!  It's a camp for dogs and their people to go to and play.  We already have trips to Maine in the works and the usual agility trial trips, beginning next month when we go to Chester Fairgrounds for our agility club's trial.

I ordered the awnings for the bedroom windows and to go over the dining area window.  This will help keep the heat down and also allow us to open the windows when it's raining, without having the rain blow into the RV.   We are also going to order a sunscreen that drops down from the big awning to provide some shade under the awning as the sun moves across the sky.  We had been putting up the silver sunscreens that we have for agility, but this will be neater and easier to put up and take down.

I am on a spending spree it seems.  I'm itching to buy a small table top grill for the RV and I'm leaning toward the Weber Q100 which gets good reviews.  I love grilling and it would be great to be able to grill when we are RVing.   Also it would cut down on the heat inside the RV, saving the air conditioning. 

I'm also itching to get started on our master bathroom.  I want to paint the cabinets, replace the counter top, sinks and faucets.  Replace the shower.  Remove the horrid pink carpeting and replace it with ceramic tile (or something equivalent)...maybe put the sub-floor heating system in so we have warm floors.  Remove the wallpaper and paint the walls...I think a "sea foam" blue.   That has caught our eye.   All this takes $$.  I will have to examine my finances and see how much I can set aside from my Social Security check.  And figure out what we can do by ourselves (pull up carpet, remove shower, paint, install tile) and what we need to hire pros to do.  I had wanted to put in a shower with glass on two sides and tile the other two walls.  Perhaps a shower surround (with drop-down seat and grab bars) might be more the way to go.  We shall see.

Today Sandy took Rocky down to meet the new dog at 690 Vauxhall, Lily.  They hit it off beautifully so next we will introduce her to Truman.  She had the good sense to roll over and play bow to Rocky when he initially snarled at her, so I don't think she and Tman will have problems.  It's Bubbles we have to watch...she can't stand other females!  

Now Sandy is en route home with my supper that Jean made....corned beef and the works!  YAY! 

Another busy week ahead.  Keep fingers crossed that I DO NOT hear the results of my CT scan until I see the doctor in the first week of April....no news is definitely good news in this case.  I have to admit that I am a little worried about this one. 

Later!