Preparations

 No matter how stressed I am about ... well, anything.... getting ready for our cabin camping trip always makes me feel happy.

Even that year when I was told I needed a breast biopsy.

This past week, I brought home two empty printer paper boxes from the office, as usual, for our non perishables, games, candles, etc.

Yesterday, those boxes were brought into the dining room, and I started dropping stuff into them!  The foil, the potatoes, the mac and cheese (our one guilty pleasure), etc.

We have been doing our prep inside the house, too.  

I always like to make sure there's nothing that our house sitters will see that makes them think "Gosh, this house is filthy!"

HAHA!

Dave is doing his share, too.... AND I got him to do it BEFORE the last minute this year!  We have found that he responds well to marking things off of a check list.

It helps to overcome his usual tendency to procrastinate, and then be stressed because he has to rush to get everything done all at once.

The usual tendency also makes me stressed, and naggy.  It's not good. 

In other news, he had his second session with his new talk therapist this past week.  It went well, and I think that may be part of why he is "doing stuff," as opposed to the opposite.

He also had a blood pressure spike that caused a nose bleed, so a call to his cardiologist's office resulted in one of his medications being increased.

Hopefully, that will be sufficient. 

Also, this past week, he met with his retirement planner again. 

The news is good.... 

His monthly retirement income WILL be enough to replace my full time income entirely, so it looks like I will be able to retire early!!

We will meet with his planner together, after the first of the year, to go over all of the details (setting up direct deposit, taxes being put aside, and stuff like that).  Then, I will start the ball rolling for my own process.

Talked with my sister and brother in law yesterday, and let them know.  

They are happy for me.  

When I talked to my brother last weekend, things had gotten worse regarding his getting started (at LONG last) on cardiac rehab.

Apparently, his doctor did NOT authorize him to go to rehab, which is absolutely ridiculous.  After months of waiting (which may partially have been due to him procrastinating on getting enrolled), now he can't go.

He's 72 years old, and went through bypass surgery.  He's weak, and undernourished, and miserable...and he NEEDS to be going to rehab!

SO, without authorization, he would have to pay for rehab himself, so he had to withdraw from the program. 

This is completely unconscionable... I do NOT understand it in the least.  I also am not sure if his son has power of attorney for health care or not.

I need to ask about that.

In other news, I ordered our ham for Christmas Eve yesterday!  I am just getting the little, boneless, pre- cooked one this year, since we now only have 2 people coming to celebrate with us.

The friends who have come in the past both have stated that they no longer want to be invited.  Okay, then!

The last thing I want is for someone who doesn't want to be with us to... be with us!

So, it will just be us, and our friends from Switzerland, who have come every year since we moved into the house in 2011.

He lost his job recently, though, so there's also a chance that they won't come.... so there was NO WAY I was going to order a full sized, bone in pig leg!

Anyway, we are back to finishing our pre-trip cleaning today, and I will be making a pot of chicken soup for our dinner.

Have a lovely week, a wonderful Thanksgiving (if you celebrate), and see you next weekend. 

Slow news week

 There's nothing much to report on this week.

The weather has been beautiful, and we are gradually making our plans for our Thanksgiving trip.

House sitters have been arranged for.

I am starting to gather the groceries a little at a time... still not sure what the main protein will be, though.

Maybe cornish hens this year.

Dave called and confirmed that we have cabin #13 again this year. That one is our favorite.  I like the fireplace best, and it has actual counter space.

He also confirmed that the shop/firewood source will be CLOSED when we arrive, so we have to go find our firewood in town after we get there and unload the car.  Sigh.

I'm also getting my holiday gift shopping done a little at a time.  I will be making candles this year for local friends.

I got my old, favorite glasses frames out, and took them to the eye doctor when I went for my check up last Monday.  I now have new lenses in them, and kept the glasses I had been wearing for the past couple of years as my back up pair.

My gynecologist visit went better this time.... it was not freezing cold in the exam room, and I didn't have to wait a full hour for the doctor to come in.

They're predicting storms tonight and tomorrow morning, so I may not go to the office. I will decide when I see the conditions.

Everyone have a good week!

Oops...

 We took a long weekend, and I forgot it's Sunday, so I forgot to put up my weekly post until just now.

I am missing our crane spotting get away this year, but it is what it is. 

My treatment went fine on Thursday, but the cold sweats that night were the worst they've been in a while.  I got very little sleep, but since we had taken Friday off, it didn't matter as much.  When I DID sleep, though, I slept really well.  It was... odd.

Got errands done Friday.

Yesterday, I did all of my chores, and then a friend and I made Scottish meat pies for dinner.  It was fun, and they turned out okay.

Next time, if there is one, we will change up the recipe a bit.

Today, Dave and I went out for breakfast, and then went for a walk in the woods.  It's a gorgeous day.

Tomorrow is an office holiday, and I try to get my eye exam, and my well woman exam, scheduled for that day every year.

This year is no exception, with the eye doc at 9:30, and the gynecologist at 2. 

That's all I have for this week.  Feeling defeated, sad, and scared, as many other Americans are.  Trying to regain my inner peace.

November tornadoes

 The sirens went off at 2 am.... Dave woke up, but I did not, which was weird.

We got up and turned on the news, as the storms raged.  No damage here!

However, this morning, the news is showing that there is a great deal of damage in areas around us.

They've been able to confirm that there were at least seven tornadoes produced by the storm system.... there may have been as many as a dozen, though, and they will continue to research the system.

My office is fifteen miles to the south east of where we live, and that area was hit hard.  Just a mile and a half away from where I work, there is widespread devastation.

Search and rescue operations are going on, but so far, no deaths have been reported, which is miraculous, given that this happened in the middle of the night

They're predicting more violent storms this afternoon, too.

This coming week, we have an appointment with an attorney to discuss Dave's retirement, and possibly setting up a trust, and finally doing our wills.  

This service is provided at no cost to us by Dave's employer.

Then, my treatment is Thursday.

We WERE scheduled to go on our Crane Spotting trip next weekend, but it has been canceled.  

The drought has caused the shallow lake at the refuge to go dry.

The lake was dry a few years ago when we went (our hosts didn't think to tell us that the lake was dry),  and the stench of dead fish was pervasive and nauseating.

Plus, with no water in the lake, the cranes don't stop there, so it's not really worth the gas to drive up there.

This year, I checked on all of that myself, contacting the refuge via face book.

OF COURSE, it rained up there all day yesterday, so the dead fish issue is probably ... better?  They're floating in the water, now, instead of rotting on the lake bed, but still.... yuck.

Also, it's not like the cranes will all get a text that tells them all to come back to the lake next weekend, HAHA.

We can't re-schedule, because all of the other weekends in November are when the refuge is closed for the deer cull. 

Maybe we can go in December... we shall see.  I'll keep an eye on the weather, and the weekly refuge posts about the number of birds.

SO... that's disappointing, because that trip, and seeing the cranes, means a lot to me.  

We will still make the best of the long weekend, though.  We took Friday off, so maybe we will go to one of the state parks that day.  

My office is closed the following Monday for Veterans' Day, and I have my usual appointments with the eye doctor and the gynecologist.  

I always try to schedule those appointments on the day our office is closed for that holiday.

That's about it for today... have a good week!