Letters to Afghanistan #3
The Lady Across The Street has been having problems with her eyes lately. I don’t know her whole history, but I do know she has migraines and a shunt in her brain to drain fluid. She posted some medical test stuff on facebook last night and when I looked it up it sounded like the beginning of glaucoma, which eventually leads to blindness.
I still have cigarette cravings, but they don’t last long. I just wish they’d completely go away. Today is Day Eleven and apparently I’ve saved nearly $72 and not smoked 207 cigarettes, which is a whole carton. According to one app I use, I’m 74% of the way to having my dependence on nicotine eliminated, but another one says I’m 100% there, however my withdrawal symptoms are only 37% complete. I bet you didn’t think I’d really follow through, did you? I know I can be a lot of talk and little action on many things and I bet you thought this would be another just like that. In the past few years my own mortality has really been staring me in the face and I really don’t want to die, before my time or otherwise. The next thing will be diet and exercise to lose this weight and I think that’s going to be harder than not smoking since it’s a long process, although it’ll be easier to see the results and rewards of it.
My Seafaring Son got off early yesterday and went to the mall to buy some new clothes. I got a text during the process about how much more fun it is when you feel good about your body. He makes me periodically feel his biceps and triceps and is thrilled that you can almost see a vein in his arm.
He also took She Who Never Comes Down to a movie last night after he went by Blue Horseshoe Tattoo. Last night he only discussed what he wanted, but the artist is working on a drawing and My Seafaring Son has an appointment on Saturday morning to get inked if he approves the drawing. He’s going for the sailing ship with the quote about smooth sailing and putting it on his left upper arm. I personally think that would be better as a back piece and is a bit big for his arm, but I haven’t told him that yet. I just stuck a note on his phone so I don’t forget.
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Friday - 5 July 2013
Yesterday I made baked beans and homemade macaroni and cheese and My Seafaring Son grilled hot dogs. We ate on the back patio and later went down to the Oceanfront. There were several tribute bands playing and we listened to the ones for U2 and Motown before the fireworks. I had a sandal strap break so spent most of the night going barefoot. After the fireworks we listened to the Journey tribute band and halfway through a lady behind me offered me a lawn chair to sit in. We didn’t leave until 2230 and it took an hour to get home with the traffic so Mom slept on the couch.
Last Sunday when I had originally mentioned different things to do, Mom didn’t sound too excited about anything and I do believe if I’d left it up to her she would have done nothing. By the time we were all sitting around the patio table last night going over our choices, she was voting for the all-inclusive option.
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Sunday - 7 July 2013
Woods of Fairfax Apartments just called and they received our payment for damages. They didn’t say anything else and I didn’t ask.
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Tuesday - 9 July 2013
Yesterday I happened to find adult-onset egg allergy info while looking at something else. Basically it boils down to this:
Studies have shown that most people with egg allergy can tolerate extensively heated eggs (baked goods).
Adult-onset food allergy occurs only in about 2 percent of the population. Research shows it's more likely that adult-onset allergies will stick around. Most cases of egg allergy in adults usually begin in childhood or in people who are predisposed to other food allergies. Adult-onset egg allergies are very rare. (Yay, me.)
In adults, most egg allergies are related to egg whites. Only a small amount of cases develop with an allergy to yolks or both the white and yolk. Hen’s egg is composed of a non-allergic shell (10% of the egg), egg white (60%), and egg yolk (30%). Egg white is 10% protein and 88% water, being more allergenic than egg yolk. The white contains more than 20 proteins, four of them being major allergens.
I also read in a couple places it’s impossible to perfectly separate the white from the yolk. It sure would be nice if my allergy would just go away.
I’ve been making lists of different things Mom could do for entertainment, exercise, etc. The idea is to make her a box with each activity written on an index card and the cards divided into color-coded categories. Then I need a basic schedule for her (I’m really sick of breakfast at 1100 and lunch at 1500). When it’s time for her to do something she picks the first card in that category and when she’s done she puts it in the back so the cards are always rotating and providing variety.
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Thursday - 11 July 2013
The One Engaged To Our Daughter texted me wanting to know how things were. I gave him a basic rundown, including that it was almost time to start wedding planning and asking if he was ready. His reply:
To be married? Yeah. To have the wedding? Heck no. Too many things to go wrong for my liking. Haha. Just trying to get kilts at a reasonable price for 4guys is a headache enough already.
He may have to compromise on the kilts.
&
Saturday - 13 July 2013
Well, it’s 0400 and been over a week since I started this letter, so I guess I’d better close it and send it. I’ve been very busy working on that list of activities for Mom and really trying to get it done in a week. I’ve come up with a lot of gross motor things (large muscles like legs), starting with chair exercise. The Engaged One’s looking for torrents to download so we don’t have to buy a bunch of videos, but I also found some on YouTube. It also includes things like yoga, Pilates, Xbox games with Kinect, lawn games, and walking. Obviously some will have to be added in after she improves a bit. I’m not expecting miracles, but if she consistently does some exercise there should be some improvement or at least a slowdown of the deterioration.
I’ve also found loads of fine motor stuff (small muscles like fingers) such as playing jacks, coloring, doing mazes, needlepoint, stringing beads, even playing with Legos. Most of it is actually productive work, but there is some that’s strictly for therapy. I’ll probably steal some golf tees from you too.
My Seafaring Son had to go back to the boat last night to move shore power because something was heating up. He called me when he was done and went out with a shipmate then was crashing at his place for the night. He promised he’d control his drinking this time. I wish he had enough time off from work that he could meet someone. I know he’s terribly lonely and a lot like your brothers in needing to be in a relationship (and probably like us if we didn’t have each other). I know he’s registered for dating websites before, but I don’t know if he’s on one now or how often he checks it. It makes me want to try and fix him up, but I don’t know anyone. Boo.
You need to get your “battle rhythm” sorted and make sure it includes some writing time to me. Because there’s a lot you could probably write about that you can’t Skype about when I’m in a room full of people. And you need to write me. Every week. Because I need it. A lot.
It’s different than Skype. I like how writing allows me to edit my thoughts and go into more detail than I would while talking, not to mention that I can really tell you things I might have trouble with otherwise, because you have a tendency to get pretty mad when we don’t agree on something. That really isn’t fair, because I have a right to my own opinion and to not agree with you on everything, because those are just basic human rights.
LOVE YOU IN ALL CAPS!
Darla