Continuing My Break

 

I'm going to continue my break from blogging for a while longer. 

We are OK here, I just have some projects I want to work on around the house and get ready for spring. 

Take care and stay well my friends.

Sunday Morning Update

 

Thanks for your comments on my last post, which had been preset to be posted.  Living here alone, it becomes even more meaningful to hear from you. 

You haven't heard back from me because I fell a while back. With all the soft earth to land on here, of course I ended up with about half of me, all of my left side and both knees, on the large extra piece of concrete I had Oscar, the concrete man, install below my little front door porch a few years back.

Both my knees and my left hand and arm got pretty banged up, so I've rested and now I feel much better. I went to Walmart Pickup the other day and also to the vet to pick up medicine for Samson and to the post office to clear out my mailbox. So all is well again. I've taken a few walks with the dogs, but the winds here are impossible right now.

This is how it looked this morning. The lights are reflections from my living room lights. As I write this now, he wind is howling again and has cleared out the fog.

But I must clear something up: So many comments were about the coming of spring. Yes, spring is the loveliest season here, I so agree. But spring is followed by summer, a season I loved in Sweden, disliked in Princeton (humidity), and liked in Los Angeles, close by the ocean. 

Here, however, it's really no fun for me. Too hot, too windy, too scary with ever increasing threats of wildfires. I used to count 100 days, which went from July 1 to October 8. Then I stopped and now I try to just live through it. Making the best of it, as the saying goes. And Samson feels the same way, exactly. 

I'm hooked up to my new pump and I believe we will get on just fine. Once I found the right training booklet, the one with the step by step instructions, I programmed it and was ready to use it, but needed to be officially trained first. As it turned out, Kathy was supposed to train me and did once we got in touch. She's just the best. And I'm now using the new pump with confidence. 

Have a great Sunday my friends.

Wordless Wednesday

Winter in the canyon 

New Insulin Pump And Other Diabetes Supplies Require My Full Attention

 

So I will take a break for about a week. 

I've had a pump since 2000 and I never had any problems with setting up a new one as they didn't change all that much in the five-year periods that would pass before I got a new pump.

This one is completely different. I'm having problems with the setup, such as moving from one place in the menu to another higher up or lower down. Logically, it seems one would press the up or down arrows, but no such luck. So I'm getting nowhere with it.  

I've looked at the training video that came with this pump, but it focused on the important changes, not my more minor issues.  A youtube video didn't help either. 

I will call my friend Kathy, who works at Medtronics, the company that makes the insulin pump, and find out if she will train me. 

I met Kathy at my doctor's office years ago. Five years ago, she came over to train me on the pump I have now. Afterwards, we drove around the back roads of the canyon and bonded over some fun adventures we had with people on horseback protecting their land, signs threatening to shoot trespassers, and a phone call to someone we suspected of infidelity. Kathy had lived in the canyon and knew these people. 

We had so much fun, bonding over childish stuff. It's funny how grownups can easily become friends when we return to our giggly childish roots. But Kathy is also a highly qualified professional, with lot of valuable knowledge to share. So I'm blessed to know her.

All this to say I need to take the week off. 

Which, of course, is exactly why I need to take this week off. I just can't quit once I begin to type away...

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And those beautiful photos you have commented on lately were taken by Errol with my little Sony point-and-shoot camera. I loved that camera. Sadly, I broke it when I fell with it while the lens was extended. 

And Errol, who made a living as a general contractor and builder, was also an artist with a wonderful eye for composition and design. 

Thus the combination of the little Sony camera, the wintry scenery, and Errol's talents get the credit for those recent pictures and my current header photo.

See you next week. Stay well and have a great week. 

Note

I finally found the training manual I needed. I've been working with it for a while this morning and things are beginning to make sense. And it says in there that I will also be trained by a person. Inputting the wrong data in an insulin pump could have dire consequences after all.

Sunday Morning Reflections

One kind word can warm three winter months.

~ Japanese Proverb

Favorite Photos

 

At this time, Samson lived with Errol in Los Angles while I lived here with the rest of the dogs.  We had to wait a couple of months before Samson had all his shots and could come up with Errol on the weekends. 

I love this picture because puppy Samson is so focused on getting to know Soldier who doesn't seem to appreciate the attention. Somehow though, by some unwritten code, Soldier knows Samson is a puppy and has to be put up with.

Wordless Wednesday

 

Getting Vaccinated

I have some good news:

Took this of our hospital a while ago, was too excited to take pictures on Saturday

On Saturday, I drove to our hospital to get my first shot of the corona virus vaccine. We get the Moderna vaccine here. 

What I saw as I drove up, I just loved. The big open spaces,  cows grazing in the fields adjacent to the hospital, and only one car ahead of me at the first stop.

My paperwork was quickly checked and I was directed to turn the corner and drive up to the site where I would get my shot. This I did and got my shot through the open window of the Jeep. 

I was then directed to turn another corner and drive to where there was an ambulance and several EMTs. There I waited in the Jeep for 15 minutes, a safety precaution to make sure I would be taken care of in case of an allergic reaction.

Today Sunday, the day after, I have more pain in my arm than after any other shot I've ever had. And feeling a little out of sorts, but no real flu symptoms, which would have been normal.  So just some pain and a chance to have a lazy day.

I see, as we all do, horrors on TV. Long lines of old people in cold weather, waiting, then being turned away because there's no vaccine left. Just awful.

And this was so simple. Went so well. Amazing even.

Hopefully things will improve soon for those who have had such bad experiences with getting the vaccines. After this awful year, everyone deserves better than what I've seen people go through.  As shown on the evening news.