2nd batch of eggs

 Mama Robin has been busy.  It is hard to say if this is the same robin or a different one.  Probably the same one as my daughter looked it up and they can have 3 - 4 clutches a season.  The first batch had 3 eggs.  Now, I am watching the 2nd batch develop.  They are not out in the open as this image makes them look.  I pull the branches away and stick my phone up as close as I can to get the picture.  I make sure mama is out and about before I take photos.  I leave the nest there at the end of summer so that a mama bird can use it the next season, but I think this one is newly created.  Maybe it's the same bird each year. Oh, I just looked it up. The average lifespan of a robin bird is 16 months but some can live up to 8 years if conditions are ideal.  

I think I've only seen robin's eggs in real life.  Other eggs I've seen have only been images. Hold up.  Looking on line the Northern cardinal eggs look familiar.  I believe I have seen them in real life.

Insubordination

Just shut up and do as you're told.

Well, okay.  Mostly I was a "just do as your told" keep your head down,

shut up and do the job worker.  No questions asked.  Until it doesn't 

make sense.  And no explanation is offered.

Back in the 80s I was working an afternoon shift in the tech department where we used

reels of tape to store data in a vault off to the side of the main computer room.

One day I come in (about 3 in the afternoon) and there is a small rack in the

computer room.  My manager instructed me that one of my evening chores was to

take several reels of tape out of the vault and hang them on the smaller rack

in the main computer room.  Any of the reels, it didn't matter, just pick some

and fill the rack up.  Didn't make much sense to me, but whatever.

What pissed me off was the very next night, he instructed me to put them all back.

What the actual fuck?  Shut up and do the job, right?  I took a big breath and

put them all back.  The next day the rack was gone.

No big deal, right?  Yes, a big deal.  I thought less and less of this manager.

This wasn't the only thing about him that irked me.  I had little respect for him.

Over the years, my lack of respect grew until I was ready to leave.

Before I left, I had seen somewhere along the line a picture had been taken of the 

computer room. And, there in all it's glory was the small rack with the data reels 

hanging from it.  It was aesthetics.  All he wanted was for reels of tape to be seen 

when somebody was coming to take pictures.  But, he never told me this. He probably

thought I would have told him to shove it if I knew the real reason he wanted

me to do this stupid, pointless task.

In the long run, I still think little of that (man)ager today.

Years before that, one of my jobs was to return defective toys to their manufacturer

for a refund.  It was a tedious and time consuming job.  The toys were tossed into a back room.  This

 was an Automotive/Hardware store and the owner would sell toys around Christmas time.  He told me

 once since his religion did not celebrate Christmas that he considered staying open on

 Christmas eve just to sell batteries.  As far as I know, he never did.

 One day I went through all the defective toys and organized them in an area that was not being used.  I

 may have even labeled some of the area, I can't recall.

The owner (my boss) came in one day and began kicking them all out of the way.  I don't

recall why.  He was pissed about something.  I had spent a lot of work on that task so

that I could be more efficient about returning them in a timely manner.

Well, that showed me he did not have respect for my time or work.  I neglected the toys

after that, much to his chagrin.  He even made a remark or two months later about my

"mental block" in sending the toys back.  I was young then and did not yet speak up 

for myself.  Mostly because I don't think I realized why I was upset with the task of

returning the toys until years later I recalled that he had done this and it clicked for

me - yes, I had a mental block about it and that was why.

For the most part, I did respect this owner/boss.  But, eventually I left and he was a bit

upset with me.  But hey,  I've come to realize that some people don't leave jobs, they 

leave people (managers and co-workers).

A Florida Jaunt

A couple siblings and I traveled to Florida in 2003 to assist our half-uncle back to his home in West Palm Beach after he suffered a heart attack on my front door step.  Yep.  We were having a family get together to welcome him and as he arrived at my house, brother 1953 and his wife did also.  My half-uncle told my brother his arm hurt, his chest hurt and he felt like he was going to throw up.  My brother and his wife (both EMTs) recognized he was having a heart attack.  We took him to the ER, they put a stent in and he stayed a week at my house to recover and a few of us took a weeks vacation and drove his car back to Florida.

Back to my regularly schedule program - one day at the beach I happened to look up and there in front of me was a lady with no top on.  Hmm...I didn't think I was on a beach that allowed that.  Sure enough, eventually a couple of gentlemen came and spoke to her.  I didn't watch, I figured she had enough problems. She did have a fellow with her but he was out in the water at the time.  She was sun bathing.  She did look a bit foreign but I really couldn't swear to that.

I think she put her top on, I don't believe they left. Like I said, I didn't want to stare at her so I don't recall what she did.  I just went on about my business.

I have no idea why this memory came to me today, but I was curious so I looked up topless beaches in the United States.   I couldn't find topless, only nude.  A handful in Florida, California and Hawaii.  Two in Texas and one each in Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, New Jersey and Wisconsin.

When I lived in Virginia in the mid-80s, the locals told us there was a nude beach in North Carolina. I believe they said in Nags Head. Or what they call the Outer Banks (OBX).  I found a site that said there were several nude beaches in both Carolinas but they were not mentioned in the other sites I read.

Well, it's not my cup of tea.  I don't even feel comfortable wearing low-cut tops.  

Memoirs

 Rarely do I read an autobiography or a memoir about a celebrity and discover that I disklike the person.  This happened once with Matthew Mc.  At the beginning of Christina's story I didn't really like her persona.  I loathed/loathe the TV sitcom "Married....with Children".  Not my humor.  

As Christina matured I liked her character more.  A little bit more.  I do not like "In your face" people.  I prefer my acquaintances to be more polite until we get to know each other better.  She seems to come off as bawdy and ostentatious.  However, that could be due to her tv character.  Perhaps time diluted her character in real life as she moved away from that sitcom.

I like her honesty with her disease and I hope she is not finished with her craft as I enjoyed the TV show "Dead to Me".  I wish for her pain to dissipate so she can return to dancing and acting.  It may be a stretch, but medicine is advancing by leaps and bounds.  I was thinking she could possibly provide voice work for characters but maybe that doesn't appeal to her at all.  I would enjoy hearing her narrate nature or animal documentaries.  I enjoy watching Laurence Fishburne narrate "History's Greatest Mysteries".  That doesn't require any physical activity on his part.  I think she would be fantastic as a talk show host but perhaps I am naive about the actual pain she endures on a day to day basis.  I need to remember that working is not just the actual job, but she has to get out of bed, get ready and travel to the job site.  That may be the part that is the obstacle.

As her disease progressed she talked of her pain and how she is mostly bed ridden but really lights up and looks forward to anything to do with her daughter.  I relate very well to this.  She does not mention her husband in the latter part of the book.  I looked her up on IMDB and it states that she is still presently married.  None of my business but just a circumstance I noticed.  And, I may have missed a part where she explained where he is and what he is doing.

As for myself, arthritis has started it's invasion of my body.  It is genetic and I've known quite a few of my  maternal ancestors who's life was devastated by the disease.  They were bedridden and one kept a bottle of whiskey under her bed.  She lay in bed seven years with the dreadful disease.  I talked to my doctor about it years ago and told her I didn't want pain killers. She said there is medication for arthritis.  But she retired.  Now to get my new PA to agree to medication.  Because, it's time.

Remember these?

 Growing up in the 60s and 70s my Mom had a drawer full of silky scarves.  When I was younger, my girlfriends and I would wear them and pretend we were older, sophisticated ladies about town.  I don't recall wearing them in my teens.  I've heard they are making a comeback.  

When I lost all my hair, I wore the gypsy-style ones.  I knew I was not going to wear a wig.  I despise wearing a wig.  

The head scarf protected your hair from the wind and the rain.  There were the thinner ones - maybe a nylon fabric?  

First laying of robins eggs

 We normally get two sets of eggs a year in a bush outside my kitchen back porch.  I didn't even know that robins lay eggs twice a season.  Last year we had a baby bird that was having difficulty flying and my daughter was able to put him back in the nest.  I'm not sure what happened to him after that but we didn't see or hear him any more after that.

My bank.  Sigh.  I called yesterday to ask them why the charges remained on my account after I called about this on Monday the 13th.  I told her on Monday the rep told me they could not do anything when the charges were in the pending stage. I knew that because this happened a year ago.  A year ago I never had to follow up.  PNC removed the three charges on my account and we all went on our merry way.  When I called yesterday the rep told me that no, it was not being contested, that it was up to me to call in and refute them.  I said I thought I did that on Monday!  No, I guess not.  Then she kept asking me all kinds of questions trying to trip me up I guess and admit that I made those charges.  Maybe they have to do that.  Well, maybe their policy changed since last year but this was too much for me.  I opened an account with a new bank online yesterday and am beginning the move over.  What a wonderful world we live in that it has come to this.

Then I checked the infamous store that sells hand soap.  I have been waiting to late April for the sale to begin.  I always make a large purchase when they are on sale.  I never pay more than $3 for a bottle of their hand soap.  Their max limit was 24 and I did not have a debit card!  Arrgghh!  The sale will be over by the time I get my card.  Oh wait.  I saw the Venmo was an option and Venmo uses my bank account number.  I chose Venmo and it brought up a bar code, I got my phone out, opened Venmo and scanned the bar code on the screen.  My phone accepted it and I got the sit and spin.  All night. The app just showed a spinning arrow going around in a circle for  hours.  I kept checking my cart and the sale was not completed but it said the payment method was Venmo.  It did not let me move forward and I was unable to try and re-choose Venmo option now.

I called their customer support this morning.  Germaine was wonderful.  He created a ticket and he told me when I got my card to call back and give them that ticket number and use my new card and if the sale is over they will honor the sale price for me.  He was just wonderful.  Now, it might be an entirely different story when I call them back in a few days but at least as of now it is promising.

But, I can rarely get anything done without connecting to a human being.  I always run into some sort of snag that cannot be handled by the automation process.  And it takes so damn long.  My head starts hurting and my blood pressure begins to rise.  

My great nephew was injured in a school sport activity Friday evening.  My sister (his grandmother) said she was hoping he would stop football due to all the head injuries that these young people receive during this contact sport.  This injury happened while he was playing La Crosse.  The hospital sent him on to another hospital and they monitored him overnight.  They said that two vertebrae were affected and he was released the next day.

Today was the day

 After a long day of taking my sister for her second cataract surgery yesterday, I researched various banks in my state to see which one might benefit me the most since I was about to end my relationship with the bank I'd used for 31 years. 

I was going to start the procedures today.  I would start with my pension check directly deposited to the new bank.  My Social Security could continue to come to the current bank and would cover most of my utilities that were dependent online to that routing and account number.

Once I established the new bank with my pension check, I would go online and begin setting up all utilities to be drawn from the new account.  Then I would order checks and begin changing all my vendors online that used my bank card to the new bank.

Well, lo and behold guess who gets their notifications of my balance via e-mail (and text I edited to add on Wednesday).  The notification came to both.  Hmmm...I may still open an account with the new bank.  Just because.  I've been wanting to anyway, long before this hassle began.

Now, since I discovered my card was compromised on Monday morning (3 cash advances were pulled from my account adding up to over $100) I checked to see that they had been removed.  On Monday they were still pending, the bank has to wait until they are out of pending to remove them.  They have not been removed.  The last time my card was compromised (about a year or so ago) the charges were immediately removed.

So, now I need to call the bank (after 9 a.m. or whenever they open) to make sure they are going to follow through and add those amounts back into my account.  If I get anything other than stellar customer service about this issue, I will be thrown right back into an irate mental attitude.  The notification debacle began March 25th.  I understand that I was not losing money due to this glitch, but I feel that I had been extremely patient as support created three separate tickets regarding this matter and I had to remain vigilant for this issue to be resolved. In other words, I had to keep calling them to check on the progress only to find that nothing was being done about it.  After calling them, they would create a new ticket.  That continued until I blew up on poor Alice after she said "I will create a ticket...."

 By getting notifications via email, I would check it with my running register every morning to make sure both balanced.  As it was, I was not checking this on a daily basis between March 25th and April 13th.  On the 13th I logged into my account to find the three cash withdraws not performed by me.  Had I been receiving my daily notifications, I would have caught this on Friday the 10th.  Again, no money lost but since they offer this feature (I told them I liked this feature and thanked them for offering it) I had become used to it and I had relied on it for  years, I suddenly had to change my habit of checking my balance.  I even went so far as to investigate my google email account to ensure there was no filter or block that had inadvertently been created that would block the notifications or move them to trash or another folder in my email account.  No such filter existed.  It was then I thought - well, turn on the text notifications and if you receive them you will know that it is an email issue.  As it was, I did not receive any notifications on my phone text (until this morning) so that confirmed it was probably an issue with the bank.

Being out of town with my sister yesterday, I needed to go into a branch of my bank to withdraw cash so that I could pay for things since I did not have my card.  I had my checkbook with me and my drivers license, I was ready for them because I was a stranger to them and was out of town.  They were absolutely wonderful and especially thought it was funny when after telling them I opted for the bank sending me a new card in the US Mail that might take 7 to 10 days and I panicked when I realized I was unable to order anything off of Amazon.  Oh, the humanity! Or, would that be inhumanity?  LOL!  Amazon Prime does not give me the option for paying with my bank account and routing information, you have to use a bank card.

 BTW Amazon - get with it.  You may be losing orders as several people get their bank cards compromised and we may have to wait a week or so without being able to order from you. After 7 to 10 days we may not feel like purchasing it, or forget, or we actually left the house and purchased it elsewhere.

Okay, I'm off to mentally prepare myself to deal with a tortuous phone call to my bank to get the criminal charges removed from my account.  Just a side note...when I was younger (and I think this happens to a lot of folks) I would not have had the resources to cover an issue such as this. Especially, since I had to pay the IRS on Tuesday when I had never had to before in all my 50 years of working.  Although, I do believe only 47 of those years actually had federal income tax taken.  2025 was the first full year I was retired for all 12 months.  I received a refund in 2024 since I worked 6 months and was retired 6 months.  And before I was 15,  I had a paper route, so I guess I worked from 1973 until 2024.

Then again, I have to remember a lot of Seniors do not have the resources for issues such as this.  I am cognizant of the fact I am in a position where I can  tolerate the surprise monetary hits.  By no means could I cover large hits, but I am very grateful that I was able to for the current hits.  

How many tickets do you have to create ?

I lost it on a poor helpdesk lady today.  We'd been playing phone tag back and forth.  I used to get my checking account bank balance sent to me in my e-mail every day and I would check it and look at my running register to make sure all was kosher.  This helped me out when my card was compromised a little over a year ago, I caught it right away and called the bank and got it taken care of.

For some reason my notifications stopped on March 25th.  I have been back and forth with my bank since then.  I have written down every day of correspondence between me and them.  I spoke to Ernest (I wonder if they get to pick their names) last week and I thought for sure when Alice called me today it was going to get fixed.  About the time Alice said she needed to create a ticket, I lost it.  This was the third time they were creating a ticket.  My other tickets never got picked up and I had to keep calling back and they would start all over and create a ticket, etc...  I went off on poor Alice.  It could have been because I had just completed my taxes. I retired last year and I have never (in my 50 years of working) owed anything to the IRS at the end of the year.  I did this year.  Yuck.  Sigh.  I'm sorry, Alice. You got the brunt of it.  She took it well.

Had my notifications been working properly I would have noticed on Friday the 10th that my balance was hinky.  As it is, on Monday I thought I better log into my bank and check things since I am no longer getting updates.  Sure enough.  My card had been compromised - AGAIN.  Now, I am going through the hassle of checking to see where I need to enter my new card number online.  I was able to pay the IRS using my bank account and did not need a card.  My daughter said I could user hers, but I did not need to.  I could have easily sent the money right back to her from my bank account using Venmo.  Kind of a pain when you don't have a bank card.  When I called them Monday morning, they offered to let me get a card immediately by going to a bank in town; but not thinking, I said nah - just mail it to me (7 to 10 days).  What was I thinking?!  I have things coming up. I'll have to get cash out.

And I am going through an Internet upgrade - and even though the provider said the job was complete, we were not seeing the faster speed.   Online chats, and more phone calls back and forth with their tech support.  And there was a medical issue that I was trying to straighten out to get them to change my insurance to Aetna Medicare.  More time spent dealing with an automated answering device until I could speak to a real person.  My tolerance was dissipating fast.

So.  By the time I got poor Alice this morning and when she said "create another ticket" that was the straw that broke the camel's back.  Sometimes I don't remember everything when I get angry.  It comes back in snatches.  I do recall saying  "I have been with this bank for 31 years..."  and "I want this fixed" and "I have been patient".   Sigh.  Well, Alice if it makes you feel any better I feel like a heel.  

I will not call them again.  If they call back and get it fixed, fine.  I'll move on.  If they do not call back, I will be going to my bank and withdrawing my money and moving it to another.  Wait...all that updating !!  I'll have to think hard on this.  Oh, I didn't relay this part.  I could not understand why I would see where the bank was trying to call me but I never heard my phone ring.  (I rarely get phone calls, my friends and family all text).  Come to find out my ringer was turned off.  This has happened before and I don't know how in the hell it is happening.  And I am much too tired and fried to figure it out.  And my daughter's bank card expires this month and she said she must have thrown the new card away as she doesn't have it and they said they sent it.  Fortunately her card is good until the end of the month and I can reach out to her if I need to.  

This is driving me crazy.  Perhaps it is driving us all crazy.  Things are not simple any longer.  With all this security - I won't even go there!  And I worked in technology so I understand why we need this security but I was saying it takes so long to log in anywhere anymore we spend more time on fixing and resubmitting and updating our security information than we do on the actual work or tasks we are trying to do.
 

Progress

A day spent fighting with the telephone system, receptionists, correspondents, banking issues, card getting compromised (AGAIN!), scheduling vet appointments, hair appointments, medical issues.  I told my daughter I think there would be a market for people who went around as assistants and did a family's phone business for them.  Vehicles, insurance, medical appointments, banking hassles.  To wait and wait until somebody is able to take your call and when they do get a live human, their foreign accent is so thick you have to ask them over and over again what they said or asked and finally I just say "spell it!"

I have a feeling it isn't going to get much better.

A friend told me I should start a business up for that.  Ha!  I have no patience for this crap any more.  I put this kind of thing off for so long (making phone calls and getting things straightened out).  It is such a pain and a headache!  It ruins my day.  Besides, I'm fairly sure there would be a privacy issue.

I have to laugh.  I have worked with computers since 1980.  I retired last year.  We upgraded our Internet speed and the two new routers came.  I opened both boxes, took them out, set everything on a table and told my daughter to deal with it when she got home.  I HATE technology so much now. I can barely keep my own computer running.  That is how sick and tired I am of technology.  I was setting up Microsoft DOS long before Windows.  Before that I was using dumb terminals with a main frame.  I was there when you couldn't have a hard drive over 32 MB.  I hated Windows when it came out.  I am a command line operator.  Or, was.

I really, really have to psyche myself up to deal with calling places and working with representatives, now.  Torture!

Does it happen to you, too?

 

You find that perfect product.  You get used to it.  They stop making it.  This has happened in make up so often for me.  It also happens at fast food places.  They will have a sandwich I love and before I know it, sorry, we don't make that any longer.  Grr...

Ugh. I just checked the weather map.  ventura.com  I chose the Air pressure. Yuck.  My state is solid red/orange.  My headache just came on the past hour.  30.4 inHg.  I'd read up on it but my head hurts too much to think.  Two ibuprofen down the hatch.  After years of suffering, it is so nice to have two tablets take my pain away.  I used to take up to four at a time and still the pain persisted.  I understand the rebound headaches and I'm not ruling that out; that condition may have been part of it.

Drink more water.  I drink two cups of coffee in the morning and water the rest of the day.  I do not recall the last time I had soda pop, iced tea, kool-aid, juice etc...  I drink water all day long.  Have for years.

A couple of years back I had a restaurant charge our table .50 cents for water.  It wasn't bottled water. Not that I am aware of.  It was during the time restaurants began charging those extra service fees.  Saying it was for administration fees,  help waitresses pay for health insurance,  cost of menu update fees, take your pick.  I make sure I always have cash with me as they charge 3 - 5% for using plastic.  Even using my bank card as a debit purchase, they charge.  I smile and pay cash.  

Re-reading an oldie but a goodie.  Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh.  My Mom and I watched the 1981 version of the series.  Before we had cable TV and we only had 2 channels plus PBS.  We started watching it because the English scenery was so beautiful. I learned a lot during that time with my Mom.  She explained to me several things about the English customs.  I was 21.  She never left the house but she read a lot.  Well, she would leave about once a week when somebody took her grocery shopping and if it was summertime to any yard/garage sales.  She did go on a trip/vacation once in a while when somebody offered to take her.  I just fell in love with Jeremy Irons.

Oh, speaking of JI.  I watched The Lion King 1994 version.  I don't think I've watched that movie in 30 years.  JI provides the voice for Scar.  And that Nathan Lane.  Loved him in The Birdcage.  I am also reading The House of My Mother by Shari Franke.  A memoir about a girl raised in a strict LDS home where her Mother posted her children's lives as they were growing up on Youtube and how it affected her.

I was brought up in Ohio and went to Sunday School/Church in a Methodist church.  I went to school with a lot of Catholics.  I worked with some folks whose faith was Judaism.  When I moved to Virginia it was the Southern Baptist.  Women were not permitted to wear pants. (Some followed this religion.)  I never thought to ask if men could wear dresses.  I guess it never occurred to me that some men DID indeed wear dresses.  Sister 1944 and I joined a genealogy group run by a lady brought up as LDS (Latter Day Saints).  My sister became Treasurer and I stopped going (too far to drive after I hit a deer on the way to a meeting) and she had a lot of stories to tell me about that lady.  Hmmm...what other religions have I run across...I think that may be all.  I've known people who attend Church of the Nazarene, oh ...I had a good friend in school who was Russian Orthodox.  In my area it did not matter what religion you were.  I think up until fifth grade we said the Pledge of Allegiance before school began.  I don't recall saying it after that. I do not recall ever praying in school.  Well, maybe to myself before a test, but not as a group.  I stand when I sing the National Anthem.  

What an awful mess things are in the world.  Maybe it was a mess back then too, I was just too young to be aware of it.  My Mom didn't vote because she said "they were ALL crooks."  I do try hard not to say off-color jokes (we used to just let them fly back then, picking on all religions, races and hair color).  My jokes were in jest, I never meant any harm.  I like everybody until they give me a reason not to.

A bit of a bite

 When I make potato soup it more or less becomes cheese soup.  I will grab whatever cheese I have available and add to it.  This time I grabbed a jar of Velveeta's Queso blanco I had in the cupboard.  Along with a can of white cheddar soup from Campbell's. I also added a cube of Velveeta (I purchased a small box of three foil-packed cubes of the cheese just like the kind you get when you buy the big block).  It was nice, this way you don't have to worry about wrapping the rest of the block to ensure it doesn't dry out in the fridge.

This jar of queso blanco gave the soup a tiny little bit which I rather enjoyed.  Sometimes I follow my recipe, sometimes I stray from it.  I totally forgot to add any butter to this and I liked it just fine.  

And, I HAD to make cornbread.  A box of Krusteaz honey cornbread.  Delicious.  And then to top it all off, I was worried about a bag of left over apples, so I whipped up a new recipe of apple crisp.  This recipe had me create a gel-like syrup made of water, sugar, vanilla and cornstarch.  I must remember to stir the cornstarch in the water so that it dissolves.  As it was, I just dropped it in and it clumped up.  

I looked back on my recipe from  years ago.  Back then I added a jar of alfredo sauce, butter, half and half, cream of celery soup and thinly sliced onion.  I never add carrots.  Not yet, anyway.  I do keep the water I used to boil the potatoes so I can add it to the cans and jars of soup and cheese and add that to the soup. This uses the last bits left in the cans and jars.  Of course I chop up celery.  I try to always have a bunch of celery in the fridge.  I found that wrapping it in foil keeps it fresh the longest.  I have frozen celery before, it doesn't look the best but it can be added to soups and pot roast for the flavor. Usually if I add frozen celery to a recipe, I remove it before eating it because it is soft and mushy.

Before retirement I was quite fond of cooking on top of the stove.  Hated baking.  Since I retired I did a bit of baking but had to stop because I was the only one eating my results.  A lot was thrown out. Nobody else will eat the soup but they may try some of the crisp.  I added a handful of dried craisins to it.

With a heart in the room

 Sister 1954 was trying to perform an AI task (her daughter had used AI to show her pics of what her house could look like) and she ended up with a room with a big heart in the middle of it.

She had typed in "room with a hearth".   LOL!

What I am reading these days

 I don't recall why I chose to read Liza Minelli's autobiography "Kids Wait Till You Hear This". I will probably finish it this week.  I watched Cabaret 1972. I had never seen it. In fact the only exposure I've had to Liza was from the 1981 movie "Arthur".  Not a fan.  I don't dislike her.  Just not my genre.  I DO admire her.

I just recently read Kitty Kelley's "Oprah",  a Tim Curry memoir and another from Priscilla Presley.  And one by Jean Kennedy Smith of her growing up a Kennedy.

Sister 1944 asked me if anybody got sick after our family party on March 21st.  Our oldest brother 1942 has Covid.  I said "I did".  But, my symptoms sounded like the flu.  Then I read the Covid symptoms. I hit 7 out of 8.  I guess I'll have to scrounge up a Covid test somewhere.  I used to get them free from USPS but the government put a stop to that.  

It's funny.  I never even think of or consider Covid until I hear somebody mention it.

Not a fan

 I am not a fan of marshmallow.  I will eat chocolate covered marshmallow if there is plenty of chocolate.  I will tolerate marshmallows in my hot chocolate.  I never eat roasted marshmallows, I hate them.  I love Rice Krispie treats and a few other marshmallow-based treats.  

I hate peeps.  I have a sister who will only eat them after they have become stale.

Anyway, here is some trivia about the marshmallow treats with the brand name 'Peeps':

Originals marshmallow flavor:

pink, yellow, blue, green, white, purple

Other Flavors:   

(seasonal and limited)

Blue Raspberry

Butterbeer  (I have not a clue)

Butterscotch

Candy Cane

Chili Lime Mango

Chocolate Pudding

Cotton Candy

Delights:  (dipped in chocolate)

  Originals

  S'mores

  Strawberry

Dr. Pepper

Frosted Strawberry

Gingerbread

Green Monster

Hot Tamale

Kettle Corn

Party Cake

Pumpkin

Sunny D  (two really gross things together, marshmallow and Sunny D)

Rice Krispies

Watermelon

Watermelon sour

Odd peeps:

  Gummy peeps

  Rainbow peeps on a stick

  Peep Jelly Beans

  Peep Sprinkles

  Peep Ring Pops

  Individually wrapped Easter Egg peeps

  Hostess Cup Cakes peep flavored

Off the wall peeps:

  Dog Biscuit peeps  (for real)

  Marshmallow peep fragrance for candle and soap making

  Marshmallow peep scented play dough  (what the what?)

  Peeps flavored lip balm

More icing this time

 

I made myself sick eating the icing.

But, it was so good!

Tomorrow's Party

 Preparing for a big family get together tomorrow.  I have 16 sets of glow sticks for the kids.  I know they all won't be there so I'll send them home with their parent or grandparent.

Sister 1944 still having issues with her daughter-in-law.  Her  husband and boys had to call the police and have her admitted again.  The hospital keeps releasing her and she just has to go right back in.

I don't know the details and I doubt my sister will talk about it tomorrow with so much family around.  This sister also has a son who has not spoken to her for 2 years.  We were at a family get together for the eclipse 2 years ago and an incident happened, her oldest son and his wife blew up at my sister and left and they've not spoken since.  She has been able to talk to their son a few times and she makes sure he gets his Christmas and Birthday gifts.

Sister 1949 may not be able to make it.  She has been baby-sitting her grandson.  He broke his leg AGAIN from dirt bike riding.  His dad was (still is) a big dirt bike rider and has broken many bones himself.  I'm not sure the boy is even 4 years old yet.  Would that be a form of child abuse?   I wonder what the doctor says.  

I went in and ordered the cake yesterday.  I showed them a picture this time of the icing I want.  Last year I asked for extra icing and got diddly.  Here are the two cakes side by side. The cake I got last year and my friend's retirement cake.  I like icing.

The Migraine

 1972. I was in 6th grade.  The teacher was writing on the chalkboard (green board with white chalk).  I was feeling strange.  I did not know what was happening.  Some of the words were missing letters as I read what she wrote. But as I read further, those letters would re-appear but the next letter was gone.  This was my first time seeing spots during a migraine.  It was probably my first migraine.  I had to go to the restroom to throw up later that day.

This happened on a weekly basis.   I don't recall having pain at that exact time.  I know I had the visual auras first and that spacy feeling and the nausea.  

Even though my oldest brother, two older sisters and my Dad suffered from "sick headaches" I pretty much just went to bed and nobody talked to me about them.  The older siblings were not living at home and my Mom just didn't have time to deal with it. My one older sister did start giving me Mylanta and I would just throw that up and to this day I can't eat a chalky antacid without getting sick.

  I could not take aspirin (that was all we took for pain back then) because I just threw it up.  Being the youngest of 8, you just try not to be a bother to the family. Stay out of the way, don't need anything, don't ask for anything or you will get the dirty look from Mom. 

Oh, and my Dad?  He was a non entity.  I do recall once during the summer, he set up a lounge cushion on the porch for me to lay out in the fresh air during an attack.  He knew what I was dealing with.

At 19, my Mom and oldest brother decided it was my eyes that were causing me the pain.  Really?  So, to the eye doctor I went and was prescribed glasses.  I was working at that time and I realized that there was absolutely no difference in my vision as to when I wore my glasses or took them off and I mentioned this to the eye doctor the next time I saw him.  He said 'yeah' he knew but felt he had to do something.  I never returned. And I didn't wear glasses again until my mid 40s.

From 1972 to 2017 I suffered.  In the late 90s I began seeing a female doctor who took my headaches seriously and prescribed me the newer drugs.  I had a small child at home, a single Mother and did not want to spend hours and days laying around like a drunk on the couch.  Head pain, can't stand light, noise or smells, couldn't eat and kept throwing up.  The drugs were a life changer.  In 2017 I was diagnosed with cancer and had a total hysterectomy and my migraines all but stopped.  I have maybe 1(one)  a year, now.

But now, I get to watch my daughter go through the same pain.  She does not tolerate the new drugs well but it is better than not having anything but over the counter pain relivers.  Acetaminophen is pez candy in my book.  It does nothing.  I may as well take a pez or a tic tac.  It never did do anything for me.  Excedrin was my go to. When they came out with Excedrin for migraine I ran to the store to see what the ingredient was they were using to stop the pain - caffeine.  Hell, Excedrin already had caffeine in it.  What a crock of shit.  After some stomach issues, I turned to ibuprofen and still take that for headaches. I  am full of wonder when I take a tablet and my pain goes away because that never happened for me.  I used to take 4 at a time.  Now, I just take the prescribed 2 and the pain goes away. But, I now have 'normal' headaches. That is why it works.

Migraines are a disability.  I remember every person who tried to give me advice. I remember every person who said "Oh, I get migraines too." But you could tell they did not.  I remember every person who sneered "You ALWAYS have a headache!" and called me a wet blanket.  I remember every person who said "It's just a headache! Take an aspirin. Take a walk!"  I remember avoiding cooked onions for years because they seemed to be a trigger.  Funny.  Now I can eat all the onion rings I want and the grilled onions on everything and raw onions and no migraine.  Nothing. Nada.  

I stay away from lunch meat because it is not good for me and I never liked it much anyway.  My Mom had 5 children in school at the same time and we ate a bologna sandwich every day.  When I was older, I stopped eating them and I think I pretty much skipped lunch. We never had the money for hot lunch and I would have died before I signed up for free meals.  I remember my brother saying when he was in grade school, all the kids who qualified for free lunches had their names written on the chalkboard for all his classmates to see and they made fun of them.  No thanks.  I'll go without eating, thanks.

I read the subreddit for migraines and I feel so bad for them.  They all say the same things over and over again.  They all suffer the same symptoms.  Some are so much worse than I had it but I think my daughter has worse ones than I did also.  Some get Botox, some go to neurologists.  Most do not find relief and they ask "How do you guys go to work?"  We laugh because we have all discovered the migraine meal - McDonalds salty fries and a coke.  I had already been eating salty foods for years because I craved it.  KFC mashed potatoes are good, too.

I think I have ordered almost every head and eye massager available on Amazon for my daughter.  We just spent the day at the ER (I guess that is why I started this post).  She started with the flu but the pain did not go away. She is 2 months into a new job and was just so worried about taking the time off because she was in pain.  A couple of days she sat at her desk with an ice pack on her face.  The doctor gave her a shot of Topamax.  It's been almost 8 hours and she is feeling much better.  I just hope it doesn't come back when the shot wears off.

Edit.  Correction.  She did not get a shot of Topamax.  She was given a shot.  Not sure if it was Toradol or Decadron or both.  She was told to take Sudafed and was prescribed an anti-nausea medication.  The shot worked wonderfully but (as migraineurs know) it wears off and sometimes the pain returns.  Hers did but not at the magnitude it had been.

Broken

 My nephew's wife has had some kind of psychotic break.  Her siblings live out of state and I don't know them well enough to know if this is a genetic issue.  Both her parents are deceased and her Mom most recently and she seemed to take it pretty hard.  She is 53.

She had a son before she married my nephew and he has had a child so she is a grandmother. She and my nephew have two boys 20 and 16.

My sister fills me in. Her daughter is a clinical psychologist (nephew's sister) and she is helping her brother get matters in hand. She knows almost all of the doctors at the hospital.  My nephew's wife was released a few days ago but it was necessary to re-admit her yesterday.  

I cannot imagine the toll it is taking on the family.  Fortunately, my nephew has some personal time saved up and can be there for his wife and his sons.  My sister is a hands-on grandmother and she and her husband are also doing what they can.

I've not had much experience with anybody having this type of issue.  I'm not even sure I've witnessed anybody having a panic attack.  I believe I had a panic attack (although I didn't know it was one at the time, it took me 3 days of research before I figured it out).

I can't imagine how scared everybody must be.

Give me a date, dammit!

 Le sigh.  No, not a romantic date.  I mentioned before that I plan the family get togethers (if not all of them, then most of them).  I am the youngest of 8.  My oldest sibling will be 84 in March.  With all 8 siblings plus children, grandchildren and even one great-grandchild we could easily produce 50 at one gathering if all showed up (which they never do, mercifully).

A week or so ago, I asked relatives in our Facebook Family Group for dates they could NOT make it in March for the family get together.  This is where the one brother jokingly said Feb 30th.  Nobody else said anything (siblings are all retired but one still works part time) so I threw out a Saturday - the 14th.  The same darn brother who jokingly said Feb 30th came back with "We will be in Tennessee March something through the 15th".  Now, why in the hell couldn't he tell me that when I first asked for dates they couldn't make it?  It is easier if people tell me dates they are unavailable so I don't suggest that. As it is, now I have to say "Never mind the 14th, how about the 21st?"  If they tell me the dates they are busy, I won't suggest them.  I am expecting another sibling to say "Can't make it that day, I have a wedding to attend (or something like that).  Sigh, sigh, sigh.  I usually try to accommodate them because those of us (who have no life) are fairly free all the time.  

And still - nobody answers me.  Wait, one did.  One asked "Afternoon or evening?"  Oh, cripes.  With so many people you know you can't get them all on the same page.  I know that is nearly impossible.  So, I please myself.  It really didn't matter to me, but the same sister said that evening worked better for her, so I said - "Sure, let's meet at 5 p.m."  

If there ends up being a conflicting date, I usually go with the one sibling who usually answers me and makes it easier for me.

I am fairly certain Brother 1942 won't be there. He doesn't like to go out in the evenings.  My Mom was pretty much the same way.  She had to be back before 4 p.m. and if we didn't feed her (while we were out and about) before 2 p.m. she wouldn't eat.  She didn't eat after 2 p.m.  I wish I had that issue.

My sister and I were talking about this last week and she said one time when she had a demanding husband and a new baby, she didn't get over in time to take our Mom to "town" she was late and my Mom snapped at her "It's TOO late, now!"   (my Mom did not drive and depended on us to take her places, as she was  pretty much a recluse and had no friends or other relatives in the area)  My sister said she felt like crap and went back home. 

The next day our Mom apologized to her but this was pretty much standard fare for three of the eight children.  The ones that did very little for our Mom she treated like gold when they came around.  The others of us who hung around and were available to take her places and stay with her - she was temperamental with.  My Mom (at times) could show conditional love.  If any of her children gave her money they were gold.  If you were unable or did not contribute, she was nasty to.  Even though we tried hard to make it up by driving her places and doing things for her around the house.  It's funny at the time you don't realize it (maybe subconsciously you do and you are confused) but all these years later you see it.   I don't want to talk trash about my Mom - not what this post was about.

And sometimes, when I am working on getting us together, the person who first suggests the date or the place ends up not coming.  What is up with THAT?!

Washed my roots today

 The roots of My China Doll plant.  Subreddit for houseplants user told me I needed to remove the plant from the current pot (throw the dirt away), wash the roots, treat the plant and replant with new clean potting soil.  (I also used a new pot).  Still fighting mealy bugs.  I went to check one of my baby plants and I think I saw a gnat fly up out of the baby pot.  No, no, no!  I don't want gnats.  That is another pest.

Call the Midwife is ending this season.  It ran 15 years and I watched it from the beginning.  Another one ending (I think) is Outlander.  It is finishing with Season 8 (also watched it from the beginning and read all the books).  I'll have to see if the latest book is available at my library to read. Nope.  "A Blessing for a Warrior Going Out" isn't released  yet.  

I am seriously bored with "Dark Winds",

My hairdresser suggested I watch Poldark. I signed out the first book of the series and read a few pages. I watched the first episode of the first season.  I don't know.  I'm not even sure I want to watch the next episode.

I watched Vanished.  I liked  Kaley Cuoco in "The Flight Attendant".  I had read the book before the series came out.

I enjoy watching "History's Greatest Mysteries). I was going to say it is on Season 4, but no - Season 7.  Wow, time is really passing me by.  I'm trying to watch "Shrinking" and "Ghosts USA".  The British Ghosts ended a few years back, the US one is still going but might end this year.  Not sure.

If you are a "Call the Midwife" watcher, the character Barbara that died and upset a lot of viewers was in the British version of Ghosts after she left Call the Midwife.  Ghosts is a silly sitcom that just keeps things light and not a lot of thinking and bad news.  Need something to take us out of the hard life.

I'm trying to arrange a family dinner but am getting no responses. I posted on our Family Group in Facebook for dates people could NOT make it (that way we aren't going back and forth asking "How about this date?" etc...) and my brother answered he couldn't make it February 30th.  He got me for a minute or so but I caught it in time and didn't post a reply.  Joker of the family.