Happy Autumn, Everyone!
My biggest news concerns a little scare we had with regard to my dad’s health recently. During the last week of August, he woke up one night in the middle of the night with acid reflux. He told his wife that his chest hurt and she encouraged him to call the nurse at their retirement community. At his age, I think this is a good thing. You can’t really be too cautious. The nurse told him that since he mentioned the words “chest pains” she was required to tell him to call an ambulance and go to the emergency room immediately. Again, probably a good thing at his age and likely necessary for liability reasons. So off to the Medical City ER dad goes. He didn’t call anyone until the next morning. He had my work phone number with him, but not my cell phone. Apparently he also did not have A’s cell phone? At any rate, he ended up finally reaching my brother-in-law, who called me the next afternoon. I attempted to call dad at the hospital but communication was extremely difficult. It turns out, however, that it really was just acid reflux. The doc scheduled him for a combo endoscopy and colonoscopy on 9/10 at Presbyterian Hospital and I accompanied him. The most difficult part for him was dealing with the preparations the day before. The most difficult part for me was finding my way around Presby since they were under construction. It took me 40 minutes to get from 1 room on the 4th floor to another room on the ground floor that was less than 100 yards away, and I had 2 escorts! The doc’s diagnosis: a pre-cancerous polyp in his colon, which was completely removed, acid reflux and for about the millionth time he was told by the nurse, the doc and myself that he does not get enough fiber in his diet. I took him to the store and made him buy some of the new fiber that completely dissolves. He’d better be using it!
A just finished a book tour in England. I should have probably posted a heads up about that.
I seem to have settled into my Fall TV watching schedule:
Monday - Craziness and dysfunction on A&E (Intervention, Hoarders, Paranormal State).
Tuesday- The Biggest Loser, the rerun of the previous night’s Greek (OMG why are you not all watching Greek?! It’s fabulous!).
Wednesday - Ghost Hunters and Top Chef.
Thursday - Project Runway, if anything.
Friday - Is craft and mock night and we usually end up mocking makeover and wedding shows on TLC (they are so easy to snark at!), though Travel Channel’s awful, ridiculous fake ghost shows (Ghost Adventures, Most Haunted) occasionally get thrown in the mix.
My decluttering continues. While I didn’t have piles of stuff all over the floor or goat paths or any of the awfulness I see on Hoarders, I still seem to have had a massive amount of stuff tucked away in closets in drawers and cabinets. This week, though, I’ve been kind of scrambling to come up with things to throw away. That’s a good sign I’m getting to the end, I think. To date I have tossed a bunch of videotapes of shows I have now on DVD or no longer care about, my mother’s calendars from 1968 through 1984, a lot of really old, musty, yuck towels and sheets that fit a bed I no longer have, . I also discovered I have 4 different types of wine bottle opener, 3 of which have never been used and 2 brand new, unopened sets of the ridiculously expensive Staedtler drafting pen sets I love.
The other day I had a discussion with my upstairs neighbor wherein he contended that our condos do not have enough storage space and I contended that we have too much. He later determined that the reason I think that is that I have a large utility closet that he does not have. I do agree that’s part of it, but more than that, I think I just have a different way of thinking about stuff at the present time. I believe that the large amount of storage space has caused me (or at least, allowed me) to acquire and save more stuff than I really need. It’s a philosophical thing, not a logistical thing.
I don’t know what I weigh any more. I haven’t weighed in a while. I probably should, and will but I have some scale fear so I’m scale avoidant right now. What I do know is that I am now able to get up and down off the floor without assistance, contorting myself and/or pain. It has been many years (over 10) since I was last able to do that. I also know that I am wearing some size 1X/18s now. I was wearing size 4X/28 when I started this.
My trainer has me doing this crazy thing lately where I hold onto a ring attached to a strap, lean back and then reach behind myself and touch the ground. It sounds simple, but I’m basically supporting my entire body weight with one arm/upper back while I sort of swing and it scares the heck out of me. It’s more an overcoming fear exercise for me than a physical exercise and my trainer even admitted last night that’s why he makes me do it.
I am still watching Fullmetal Alchemist and still loving it so very, very much. It did get off to a bit of a rocky start, mostly because they were speeding through the little bit of material that is the same in both the manga and the first, not-really-FMA anime. Now that they are actually animating Fullmetal Alchemist, it’s just awesome episode after awesome episode.
Ending with some fangirly links:
The Yellow Jacket Blog: You Like Anime? Freak!
NPR Monkey See Blog: Comic Books Take a Bold Leap Backward and Nail the Dismount