Sunday, May 17, 2026

The week has been pretty slow and boring.  I did have art class with Genevieve on Wednesday and we made these little hanging containers for flowers or plants.  They are aluminum cans with the bottoms smashed closed and flattened, painted, and a design decoupaged on them.  My friend Judy has been making many of them and donating to a local hospice group to help cheer folks up and the neighbor down the street, Tom, crushes the cans and paints them.  

We also put up the totem in the perennial gardens along our property.

I have worked on the gardens with weeding and moving plants around that have popped up out of place - in hopes of getting more clumps of the same type of plants and also of thinning out some of those that have gotten out of hand.

I spent part of the morning on Friday and Saturday going to garage sales, as it was Bloomington's Community Sale weekend.  I didn't find much other than a book and a pretty Peace Lily plant. I also learned how to care for the one that I have and make it more healthy and look a little better.

For some reason, I have felt real tired and dragged out this week, sleeping a good 10 hours during the night and taking good naps during the day.  I have also noticed some strange sensations that are like Goose Bumps, first noticed when Tom was still here.  I did a bit of research on the Mayo Clinic website and found that it could be related to the LGI-1 Epilepsy seizures.  Since I am having another ambulatory EEG next week, I let the neurologists know and will see if anything shows up.

Monday, May 11, 2026

 It was a rough week, especially when I got a call on Wednesday night from Ben to let me know that he was on his way to Urgent Care because he had fever and chills. They gave him antibiotics and sent him home at midnight. He went back on Friday because the bacterial infection that he had wasn't responding to the antibiotic they were giving him. They put him on IV fluids and a stronger antibiotic and kept him overnight for observation.  I went up to sit with him for a while that night.  They kept him on Saturday and he was finally released late in the afternoon.

I knew that Jill would have her hands full, so I offered to make Ham and Potato Soup to deliver for the family that night.  Needless to say, it was much appreciated.

Jill made reservations for Mother's Day Brunch at Olivia's Organic Restaurant and the food was delicious as always.  I went back home, took a nap, and then met up with Ben for a walk around Staring Lake.  It was the first time I have done a 2-mile walk in ages. I was tired toward the end but made it and felt good for doing it.

The company that owns my community is having a Heart and Sole competition over the next 3 months, asking residents to track their steps and report them.  I made 51,899 steps this week.

Sunday, May 3, 2026

 Well, it has been a week of readjustment for me, going from a couples relationship with Tom to being single again.  It was nice to spend almost a month with him, we have some good laughs, enjoy watching movies and taking walks.  I appreciate that he took the long drive to make that happen and was willing to come here when the weather was nothing like what he is used to. He was truly a trooper.  He headed back to AZ on Tuesday morning - taking five days of driving and four overnight stops, arriving to his home in Apache Junction yesterday afternoon.

I spent one afternoon doing some thrift store shopping, but mostly spent time at home and going for walks with Joey, as the weather is getting better each day - seeing the sunshine gives me a good feeling. 

I have been doing a series of exercises given to me by the physical therapist to help with my left knee that has been snap, crackling and popping.  On Wednesday morning, I did the complete series of three exercises with 20 repetition of each.  I woke up during the night with my hips and knees burning, had to apply a heat pack and take a couple of Tylenol.  The next day, I could hardly walk - hurting every time I moved. So I'm backing off from those exercises and doing only as many as I feel comfortable with, in addition to my every day stretching routine and walking.

Charlotte was swimming in a meet at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center yesterday, so I met Ben there and watched with him.  She swam in five events and improved her times in each of them, did real well in the 100 meter backstroke but the timing system wasn't functioning correctly and she came in first in her heat of the 50 yard freestyle event.

Monday, April 27, 2026

 I had my monthly Stampin Up meeting on Monday afternoon and we made 3 cards - 1 was very easy and the other 2 were difficult techniques that none of us had used before.  I managed to get one of them done, but saved the other to take up some time at home.  Pat brought a chocolate cake for us to share and we enjoyed some conversation.  Tom did some shopping while I was gone, getting prepared for leaving for Arizona on April 28.

I had an appointment for a PT consult on Wednesday morning and it turns out that my left knee to hip just need some specific exercise to get them stronger and feeling better. He gave me 3 exercises to do over the next few weeks to see if it gets better.  

We walked the path around Girard Lake and then did some grocery shopping that afternoon.

We went to an IHOP for breakfast on Thursday morning - neither of us have been to one for many years and the breakfast was typical but very tasty - everything done to perfection.  After that, we headed for Costco where I needed to pick up a few grocery items and then a stop at Walmart to replace the portable fan that I had that was worn out.

We met Lois, Ben, Jill, and family at Hola Arepa on Saturday evening to celebrate my birthday. Dinner was yummy and we had a great visit. A future evening at a show at the Guthrie Theater will be my gift, although I feel the dinner was plenty.

The weather has been very comfortable this week - a couple of days with temps near 80º but it has since cooled down and we are getting some rain.

I got lots of calls and texts from family and friends on my 78th birthday and Tom and I had a yummy steak dinner with cheese cake from my friend Deb.

Sunday, April 19, 20026

 We were up early on Tuesday morning and had the car loaded and were ready to take off for Mass City, MI by about 8:40am.  The worst part of the drive was getting through the city, but the rest was decent, heading to the northeast through many small towns in Wisconsin and arriving at Richard and Carol's getaway by about 4:00pm.  We sat around and chatted for a bit and then Carol served up a delicious homemade pizza and salad and I brought Apple Crisp for dessert.  And then we talked and talked and talked until almost 11:00.

Richard bought this house as a base for snowmobiling where he and his friends have easy access to the trails - he can leave his yard and access trails without having to tow it somewhere on a trailer. Mass City alone is known for getting an average of 170" of snow each winter and not far north where you get the lake affect from Lake Superior, it can be over 300". He has made many upgrades to the house, a complete modern kitchen, comfy furniture, big screen TV, and the upstairs bedrooms can sleep about 8 people plus a sofa bed in the living room.

On Wednesday, after a tasty breakfast of sausage, egg, and cheese sandwiches on English muffins, we headed north to see Lake Superior.  It wasn't long and we could see that the woods were still covered in snow.  Many of the small towns are still closed up for the season - they have two - snowmobile and summer - so we weren't able to stop along the way for lunch - all restaurants were closed - perhaps they are open on the weekend.

Again, Carol made a delicious dinner of good old Sheboygan bratwurst, burgers, hard rolls, potato salad, and beans for dinner. And we sat around and talked and talked and talked.

On Thursday morning, we had breakfast, packed up, loaded up, and headed out - working our way toward Wausau, WI where we spent the night at a La Quinta motel.  We found a little city park to walk around and then back to the hotel.  I was getting a bit crabby because it was a much longer walk than I expected due to getting across busy streets.

We went for a nice dinner at Oliva's at Gulliver's Landing and had a delicious meal.  I had a brandy old fashioned - the first in many, many months and it sure tasted good.  It also had a strong effect, as I was feeling pretty tipsy when it was time to leave, so Tom did the driving back to the motel. 

 Tom arrived safe and sound on Thursday, the 2nd and we had a pleasant first night together, enjoying the enchiladas that I made for dinner.  It has been cool and cloudy but we managed to get walks in a couple of times each day, mostly short ones to the bus stop or up to Pleasant View Road.  

Easter Sunday turned out to be a very nice day with temps up in the 70s and we took the dogs to Minnetonka Regional Park and to Carver County Park to walk the paved trails.  It sure did feel good to get outdoors and see the sunshine without a wintry jacket on. I had brought left over spaghetti and meatballs, so we had that for dinner and not a traditional ham dinner.

On Monday, we started to gather our gear together to go back to my apartment and did laundry and some house cleaning so we leave the house in good shape for the vacationers.  Their flight wasn't landing until almost midnight.  We waited until we were sure that they had taken off on their return trip, let Yoshi out one more time, and then headed back to my apartment, getting there about 10:30 pm.  We unpacked and went to bed, hoping to sleep in the next morning.

The days have been cool and gray this week but we saw a little bit of sunshine on Tuesday.  We have mostly taken walks around the neighborhood, but did the trail by the Bloomington Ice Garden yesterday - almost a mile.

A very strange thing happened at around 5am on Thursday morning when I woke up crying out "Help me, help me, please" and crying from a nightmare.  What I can remember is that someone, I think Mike was asking for help and I was unable to get to him.  I was able to go back to sleep after settling down, but it was quite scary.

Wednesday, April 2, 2026

 Last week was a busy one - on Monday, I went to Stampin Up for the first time in two months due to snow storms and also my trip to Arizona.  It was nice to see the gals and we assembled 119 card for people in the Hospice center and also several for the volunteers that help them all out each and every day.

We had art class with Genevieve on Wednesday and it was so nice to see her.  Our project was needle felted Easter eggs - everyone had an original design and it was fun to do and we had some good conversation.

A couple of near 70° days made it easy to go for some good walks, although my leg strength and energy level sure leave a bit to be desired.

I saw the opthamologist on Friday to talk about options for treating my extreme dry eye problem. It doesn't matter the conditions - warm or cold, windy or not, bright or cloudy, drops or not, always watering and I wanted to get another opinion.  In the past, I have been advised to use wetting drops many times a day and moisturize with Vaseline. This guy's approach was completely different. He said that my eyes are producing too much quantity and enough good quality tears - the oil ducts that produce the good quality tears appear to be blocked - his recommended treatment is to apply hot compresses twice a day for two weeks and then let him know.  He also used a small tool to open up a part of the eyelid that secretes moisture.  Already, my eyes are not watering nearly as much except when I go outdoors nd even that is an improvement. 

Saturday morning was the third 'No Kings' rally in the US, in protest of Donald Trump and an estimate of 3 million people showed up in many locations through the country.  I had planned to go with Leslie to a small location in Bloomington, but she wasn't feeling up to it and I couldn't find anyone else to go. I taped my signs to my car and went past the rally, honking my horn and waving the peace sign. 

After driving past the rally, I met Ben and Charlotte for coffee and then later on, went to their house for dinner.  I hadn't seen them all since mid-February, so it was good to reunite again.  We also had some things to talk about before they head out on their vacation next week and I house and dog sit for Yoshi.  

After getting settled in at Ben and Jill's house this afternoon, I watched the launch of the Artemis Spaceship that will be the first space mission to circle the moon and will be in space for ten days. It has a crew of four astronauts, one being the first woman to go to the moon.  It went off without a hitch and I just felt chills all over as I watched. It is incredible technology that humans are capable of.   I will be spending the next week here and Tom will join me tomorrow evening, as he has spent the last 3 days traveling from AZ