The day started early and ugly – nosebleed – not uncommon for me – especially after 20 hours on planes. It will keep me out of the water for a couple more days. Do not want a nosebleed in the middle of the ocean. Sharks.
While walking to Honl’s I get a call from my doctor – but, by the time I drag my phone out – she is gone. Hang out a Honls for a while. Then, great breakfast with Billy.
Back to hotel – they charged my entire 4-month stay to my credit card leaving me $2.47 over my credit limit. Fixing it seems to be impossible. So, I just smiled graciously and said: “Is OK, no problem”. I transferred money to Visa. I should get some karma points for that.
Called the doctor’s office. Didn’t get the doctor, but I did get the great word: BENIGN from the message the doctor left for me. I haven’t seen the lab report. But, BENIGN works for me. Great.
Now, think about this. A SPANX shop at an airport?
Ladies when you have been squished into your plane seat for more than a little while. And you most likely need to pee… isn’t buying SPANX about the last thing on your mind?
Classic LAX
Always glad to see that the space ship building from the early 1960’s still stands.
21 hours after I started out, I am now safely ensconced in my room. I slept and ate my way across country. Carlton said that I had to eat in every time zone. And he was right about that.
In keeping with my plan to slow down, I am doing nothing until tomorrow morning. Well, except charging the phone. More tomorrow.
Old School. Mind Games. They still make film for these Twin Lens Reflex cameras.
While sorting all my toys and getting ready to pack them up, I had a crazy idea. What if I didn’t take anything that had a battery or cable. What if I went 4 months – totally Old School?
What would I leave behind:
Forbin, the computer.
Shamu, the phone.
Alexa, the ??? well what is she anyhow?
Kindle, the library.
The iPad.
The noise canceling earmuffs.
The Pen-F.
The underwater camera.
The blood pressure machine.
The “transistor” radio.
The headlamp flashlight.
The Panasonic water pik.
The toothbrush.
The watch.
The Fitbit.
Talk about making room in my life for “white space”. And, I couldn’t even replace all that stuff because I wouldn’t be able to get to Amazon. And, if I borrowed a computer, it wouldn’t do me any good because I couldn’t get to 1Password to let me into my accounts.
Note to self: You will be one of the first to die after an EMP event.
All checked in for tomorrow’s flights. No word from my doctor’s office. And, I invoked the “Don’t ask questions you don’t want to be answered” rule and didn’t call them.
I may or may not post tomorrow.
And yes, I am taking Alexa with me.
Looking pretty busy in exciting downtown Kailua-Kona this morning… Don’t know if I’ll be able to handle the excitement.
We had an impromptu “Bring Your Own Dinner” party in my apartment this evening.
AND, an Asylum Sister knitted me a pair of socks! How cool is that? And they are real socks. Not tube socks.
I couldn’t knit a muffler. Much less (OOPS, just lost power for an instant) socks. These bad boys are going to Hawai’i on my feet. After that, they’ll get a lot of rest in Kona.
I need to get a lot of rest in Kona too. Gotta learn how to throttle back. To take it a little slower. Not stop doing things. But to just put more whitespace in my life.
Well, that can start on November 1. No time for whitespace just yet. Actually, November 2012 was the last time my life had whitespace. Carlton’s major health issues became all-consuming in early December 2012 and I have been Energizer Bunny-ing my way through life since then.
Well, having heard nothing from “my hospital” – I decided to just pack up and go to Kona on my broomstick on Halloween as planned. I haven’t done anything getting ready to go-wise except at work. I didn’t want to jinx the trip. But, how much do I really have to do?
Decide what toys to take. That is what I have to do. Sort of thinking about going old-school camera-wise. Just take one fixed length (35mm) lens. And, the retro Pen-F body. That cuts about 3 pounds (plus a monopod) off my gear. Or I could go totally modern and just shoot with Shamu the Phone. Well, I don’t have to decide that until tomorrow or Monday.
Sign in my elevator lobby: Oh, we have hot water. We are just not sending it to you!
I have never had acceptable hot water service here at the Asylum. (Carlton would not have been happy.) But, it has gotten worse since they tried to fix it. If I want a shower, about 15 minutes before I hop in – I start the hot water running and maybe it gets tepid. And, that is about like the hot water is at my hotel in Kona.
This is for my Asylum friends.
This is the original recording of one of the most mournful songs ever. I rather prefer Aaron Neville’s version. But this is where it starts.
Note to those who do not live in The Asylum: yesterday afternoon they had a little event the involved group singing. Old white people singing isn’t pretty.
First: A famous resident whose anonymity we respect tried to get to the elevators without making a scene or being seen.
Next: By and by Lord, they start singing May the Circle Be Unbroken. A really cheery song for old people. And can nobody except me sing harmony? Nobody. And, I don’t sing.
And then: Wait for it…
The rescue squad come rolling a gurney through. May the circle be unbroken.
Thinking that I’ll just go to Hawai’i on Halloween as planned. What’s the worst that can happen?
Stay tuned.
BTW – Tonight I went clubbing with some of the Asylum Sisters. The food was mediocre – but the entertainment was great. Saw Susan Werner at a dive in Vienna. (Hey, when everyone is over 70 – that is clubbing.)
Went out to dinner with most of the nurses from my office this evening.
That was after working ALL day. ALL day. From 0715 until 1630. Outrageous.
No results from yesterday’s biopsy yet. Not even going to think about what I might do or not do until the results come back or Saturday morning. Whichever comes first.
And now, I do believe I’ll make a nice cuppa And waddle off to bed. You can not believe how many calories were consumed this evening. Let me count the ways:
Beer
Pimento/pickle nachos
Fried green tomatoes
Pig and cheese sandwich, grilled
Brussel sprouts and hominy
Biscuits and honey
Nibbles of macaroni, burger, pancakes, cheese and grits
I will not be able to fit in a plane seat if I don’t get out of here soon.
And now for something really scary – me after the FINE needle biopsy.
The FINE needle biopsy went FINE. Just a little band-aid. But, it does rather feel like I got a karate shot to the neck. Not to complain, a nap and a handful of ibuprofen worked wonders. I went off to work and then joined forces with a friend who also had a procedure at the hospital. We went to “lunch”. We had a well-balanced meal of ice cream and coffee. Hot and Cold. Chocolate and Vanilla. Well-balanced.
Or were you expecting Halloween picture? How about this FINE creature?
South 4th Street. A T-Rex maybe?
On a more serious note – “they” said that the results could take up to 5 business days. I really want to know by Friday. Because, if I am going to need to the surgery – I want to move my departure from Halloween to say Thanksgiving. And, if I am going be told: “we’ll just watch this…” I need to get my ass in gear and get ready to go. How does one hurry cytology?
Being a kickass old woman, I got an appointment (Wednesday AM) for the “Fine” Needle Biopsy. Wonder if “fine” when applied to Fine Needle Biopsy means the same thing it does when I say “Read the FINE manual”… I’ll let you know on Wednesday.
They did tell me that I could drive myself home. GREAT! That must mean that they are going to give me a car. Make it red and convertible.
A car which I would have to park –
Not all parking spaces are created equal. Not even close.
I found this spectacularly shat upon car while walking home from the bus stop.
Taking tomorrow off from work to sort of get ready to get ready to go to Hawai’i as planned on Halloween. I think the trip will take place as planned. Well, maybe I hope the trip will take place as planned.
Continue to have issues with my Time Machine Backup. I think it is some conflict between Sierra and High Sierra maybe exacerbated by file encryption.
Way fewer bands, way more cars in this year’s parade.
Had trouble with Time Machine this morning. I started backing up at 8AM and by noon it had backed up 2 of 38 gig. I stopped the backup and backed Forbin up to a different (unencrypted) drive. It did 300 gig in less than 2 hours. Don’t know how much less, I wasn’t watching.
I know I backed Forbin up to the encrypted drive after I upgraded to High Sierra. And, it didn’t seem to take too long then. I suspect it is some issue with file structures and my encrypted backup disk. I am not happy when my backup system stops working smoothly.
As for my medical issues. Tomorrow, I will be on the case to get an appointment for the biopsy. Guess what? To my complete surprise – one of the ladies here at the Asylum essentially “wrote the book” on fine needle thyroid biopsy. Maybe she can do it for me in her kitchen!
