Spring forward

new bird feeder already popular among the avian set

flower made from dishes from the same artist

a present for someone who does not read this blog

serious Allie

I used to hate daylight savings time when I was working. Just as I would have been able to bike to work in the morning, back to darkness. I also felt cheated an hour of my precious weekend.

 

Michigan didn't even have daylight savings time until I was a freshman in college. And then it occurred at the end of Aril, not mid-March. Growing up, my favorite radio station, CKLW, was from Canada, which did have daylight savings time. So the time they gave was off an hour.

 

This was supposed to be my long biking day but alas, cold and rainy. I did go out for a soggy run.

 

Back to the machinations of the House of Cards characters tonight....

Ignoti nulla cupido

Put this print up in our living room instead of a cat poster I had

cute tile

My splurge at the Saline craft fair. These are fused glass tiles mounted behind glass and framed

recycled dish bird feeder

Josh and Allie at the park we went to. She keeps ducking my photos

One does not desire what one doesn't know. This for years was the reason various groups have given for not teaching sex education. If the kids never hear about sex, maybe they will not desire it.

I don't know the Latin for Whatever I don't know, won't hurt me which is my modus operandi these days. There are some things I don't want to know any more about.

 

But despite my scary upcoming week, I've managed to find some fun. A nice bike ride, listening to peepers, two dinners with Josh and Allie (Julie is out of town) and today, a buying spree at a craft fair with some friends. No not just for myself. Lots of birthdays in March.

 

 I messed up a perfect photo this morning: two deer in my backyard silhouetted by the orange and pink sky at sunrise. I was shooting through a window. Unfortunately a small reading lamp cast a reflection on the window, which is what the camera focused on. The rest, all fuzzy. By the time I could turn the light off, the deer galloped away.

Could I be Jewish?

Indoor garden: I get one hibiscus a week versus 10 at a time during summer

kalachoe : I know this is the wrong spelling but am too lazy to look it up

orchid

Recently my brother has been reviewing our family tree and has noticed that our mother's mother's parents both had very Jewish last names. I had assumed that this great-grandfather's name was Polish but  all research points to it being a Jewish name. They were both born in Poland with the great-grandfather born near Gdansk but emigrated around 1890 from a Prussian town called Bergfriedj. In censuses, they identified themselves as "German" and gave their 8 children very Teutonic names. Were they trying to pass? This great-grandfather was buried in a Lutheran cemetery and took his kids to Lutheran churches, not Polish or Jewish.

 

The mystery could be solved easily with a DNA test. I have not done this before as I assumed that I would show up mostly Western European with one eighth Irish. Scottish, English, French, German, Austrian, and even Northern Italian show up as such. Irish is a separate category, which surprises me as I thought Celtic would be its own category (I'm at least quarter Scottish). But they do distinguish Eastern European (aka Polish or Slavic) from Western And Ashkenazi Jews are another category.

 

Why would this possibly matter? For one thing, a BRAC1 test was not suggested unless I was Jewish or had a family history though there seems to no smoking gun among my grandmother and her sisters dying at an early age. Another is the guilt I occasionally feel about breaking a 5000 year old chain of an ethnic group struggling to stay together against all odds only to have the chain broken by Steve marrying a shiksa as Jews need to have a Jewish mother to be considered Jewish. Not sure when the matrilineal descent replaced the patrilineal descent spoken of in the Old Testament. When in Brooklyn, I see the accusatory stares of old ladies on the elevators or maybe staring is more socially acceptable there than in the Midwest. I do look like a shiksa. Steve never seemed to have a problem with this but I suspect his family did. At most, I would be a quarter Jewish but as it is all from my mother and her mother, that's what presumably counts. And it would be such sweet irony as my racist father always said such nasty things about my marriage and my 'half-breed' children that he himself, married a Jew. But he is dead and not around to appreciate his very ethnically diverse great-grandchildren. He would have something unpleasant to say about every ethnicity now in our gene pool, even Julie's.

 

One thing that a $100 DNA test probably does not tell is if Steve has retained the Cohan gene on his Y chromosome. One tenth of Jews have this gene originating 3000 years ago with Aaron, brother of Moses. More than 100 generations have gone by. Just one rapist or intermarriage or philandering (can women do that?) would break the chain.

 

With this warm weather comes  rain. Yesterday I at least got half of my run in on the country road before it started to drizzle. But the redwing blackbirds were trilling. Soon the peepers will be out. Spring, spring, spring!

 

Then on to my Cooking for Wellness. Subject: Healthy oils. Food was prepared with grape seed, sesame, peanut, avocado and coconut. . Since when has coconut fat become such a darling?

 

I dread next week and its battles and possible bad news. Trying not to think about it much.

The Dreaded callback

I think I'll wear the sad one today
From somewhere on the internet

Ugh! I thought I had made it. I was told to expect a call within 2 days if they needed more mammograms. I had the original Thursday. By the end of the working day yesterday, no call so Yay!!!! One less thing to worry about for a year. But while I was trying to vote today, the call came. I have to wait more than a week for the new scans plus bonus, I have to go to the hospital. Plus, I am entitled to one free screening mammogram a year but once it converts to a diagnostic mammogram, I have to pay for every subsequent scan plus the first one.

 

So as I keep telling myself, the mammogram looks different because of my surgery and things haven't fully healed. And maybe  I have more calcifications because of the surgery and once they realize this, I will be given a clean bill of health.

 

Or maybe the cancer came back and the tissue they had biopsied wasn't the cancerous tissue.

 

It makes me sick. My heart sank when I saw the phone number.

 

And if life isn't fun enough, my health insurance hadn't as promised given my dentist the go ahead to fix my teeth. More phone calls. The new person said she  would 'escalate' my request as it has been so long. She called back saying she would need my dentist's tax ID number and a few other personal things that of course I didn't have. The insurance expert at the dentists agreed to call a number (turned out to be the wrong one) and provide them with this info. But then they told my dentist's office, my injury would not be covered unless it is life threatening. Did I come to the office unconscious? More phone calls: I got two more people at my insurance insist my dental bill will be covered, I had got the supervisor involved but my out of network dentist still needs approval. I think I will need to call them daily. I didn't cancel my dental appointment as my teeth are hurting and I was told the approval would have come last week.

 

 

But it is spring! 72 rock and roll degrees. I watched Tessa and Daniel play outside this morning. In the afternoon, a 14 mile bike ride in shorts!short sleeves!. Heads of daffodils, irises, and croci are peaking through the dirt. A chipmunk came out of hibernation. Birds are singing!

 

The Motor City

succulent bunny doing well in our bathroom  Soon he can be taken outside...

Florida clouds and me: July 1958

My mom would have been 89 years today

Who doesn't need a big metal K above their mantel

more 'art' for the guest bathroom

My friend has been in the bone marrow transplant unit in a Detroit hospital since Valentine's Day mainly dealing with host versus graft disease. Her boyfriend has been unable to visit her due to being ill himself with something she can not be exposed to and few people are willing to drive all the way to Detroit. Would I please, please visit her? She is doing better and now can sip broth though for food, she is relying on a bag of white goo which goes directly into her veins. Once her system can handle real food, she can go home in about a week.

 

I thought I would bring Steve and visit the Detroit Institute of Arts or the Heidelberg project and eat at one of those restaurants in Ferndale but alas, he had a doctor's appointment to see about some strange benign growth on a finger. This will be removed in a few weeks. The new snow had melted again so I was good to go by myself to the huge medical complex. I found it quickly but finding the appropriate parking garage with NO signage took a while.

 

When was I last in Detroit? Half of the time on my many trips to Boston, I would go through it to get to Canada (the other times heading to Port Huron with less wait times at customs). Maybe when I drove Shanna  and the kids to Michigan once they left Boston for good in 2012?

 

She is on the tenth floor. At night, the view would be impressive but in the day, not so much. The CDC came in to deal with the C. diff epidemic the unit had. She was officially no longer ill with it so I didn't need to get into the full body suit I would have a week ago. Still they wiped everything down and I wore gloves and touched nothing of hers. We walked the halls for her to get some exercise. I suspect she was the healthiest patient there. We did come across one woman all made up with a sparkly head cap ( my friend wore a Red Wing stocking cap). We marveled that she had the energy to do that but then she was in a wheelchair despite being fairly young. I suspect only my friend had the energy (and blood cells) to walk.

 

We gabbed all afternoon. Turns out, we had attended the same elementary school in some dismal downriver suburb my father rented a house in while our house was being built. But during the semester I went there, she hadn't been born. She is 9 years younger.

 

The last day of winter. Hopefully it is today. This entire week has been slippery snow overnight that eventually melts by the end of the day only to be repeated the next night. Lots of slippery roads. Finally a path melted by late day yesterday. I will have to wait until almost noon today.

 

I should be concentrating on things to do inside here.

 

Triple Negative Breast Cancer Day

Me among the begonias in Bath, England

How did I celebrate TNBC day (3-3-2016)?  Got my girls smooshed. Fastest mammogram ever due to it being the type that they will call you if you need extra films at a later date. According to the info sheet, there is a 5-10% callback rate with most of these for benign reasons. I suspect my chances are higher due to the recent surgery moving everything around. I did ask to see the scan of the formerly diseased breast. She balked saying I wasn't allowed to see it. Why not? It's my scan. She gave in. It still looks scary, full of metal clips. The seroma, now empty, has calcified looking very much like a small egg or tumor. But unlike a tumor, it is empty. And blood vessels could not support anything within. From what I remember, it looks like the last scan. I didn't see any other areas but we will see what the radiologist thinks.

Bonus: I didn't have to go to the cancer center which always sets me on edge. Too many bad memories. Plus it is further away and it costs to park there.

It is snowing yet again. I had to wait late into the day yesterday for the sun to melt a path. But after this weekend, days of 50 and 60.

Bought more junk art yesterday and visited Shanna and Tessa.
Tonight, my friend and I resume watching Transparent.

Second sight

where some of the plants are wintering. Some of the succulents I am fostering for my leukemia friend.
 One of my orchids is starting to bloom again. Yay.

Naomi playing around with special effects

Out my window today, all is sparkly but so cold

Tiffany-like lamp-like pretty purchased last week

Recently I was researching the differences between white and black cataracts (I assume I have the more treatable and common white variety that are not advanced enough for insurance to pay for their removal) and came across the term second sight. As it turns out, this is another symptom of cataracts.

 

Before I entered ever so gradually The Land of Geezerdom, seeing was impossible without my glasses. I would need them to read too. At some point in my forties, the glasses did not help at all with reading either but it was impossible to focus close-up without them. Enter the Land of Progressive Lenses. Although I could now read, doing things like threading a needle became impossible as I could not focus on the head with or without glasses. Meanwhile my eyes were constantly changing: less near-sightedness but more farsighted.

 

Somehow, while I was being occupied with more pressing medical issues, I gained second sight. Without my glasses, I  now can read very well, thread needles, look easily at small detail well beyond what Steve can see even with his old age glasses. I push my glasses up as a hairband when I want to look closely at something. I just assumed this was some sort of gift, along with the nearsightedness going away (if it is a linear relationship, I should have 20-20 vision when I am 100). Alas, this is allegedly temporary and only a first sign of cataracts.   And when will the cataracts need surgery? The expert couldn't say. Maybe 2 years, maybe 20...

 

Winter came back with yet another snow storm but if I just hold out for another 4 days, spring should be here for good.

 

What's up in my little world?

 

Battling the assessors. Property tax can only be raised 2% a year regardless of the increase in value of a house in Michigan. However once a house is sold, the taxable value can be reset at its new value. What is the value of a house? Very hard to say but a good starting point is what its market price is. And what its market price should be is what it sold for especially as it didn't sell at a much higher price for 6 months? Anyway, we just got notice that our new taxable value is $100K over our purchase price.#$%$#!!! No the value didn't go up that much. And at any rate, the new value should have been reset at the purchase price (minus extras such as the expensive riding mower thrown in and window treatments) and then they could add their 2%. We have an appointment for our battle in 2 weeks. There is one house just like ours in our neighborhood whose owner is thrilled that we got our house at such a bargain as she  potentially will use it as ammunition for her own battles.

 

Scan anxiety: I had to postpone my mammogram as they moved up my surgery date but I was not allowed to move up my mammogram even 2 days. And then my new girls needed 3 months of toughening up to withstand being squished (oh I just can't wait). Meanwhile  TNBC is super fast growing and likely to appear between scans. I was lucky to catch it when I did. Delaying my mammogram has made me nervous. True they biopsied the tissue they removed and there seems to be no breast tissue left to grow cancer in in the most likely quadrant of the mangled breast. But I think the scans are going to look so much different now that I will be recalled to sort the new appearance out. My scan is tomorrow but since I didn't give them enough warning, I got the type that they will contact me by mail to say whether it was clear or more scans are needed.

 

My teeth hurt and need to be fixed now:  Still waiting on my useless insurance to give me permission. They said 7 -10 days  and it's 7 days. This is the same insurance that sent me with my lip hanging down to a drugstore miniclinic when even an ER doctor said she couldn't handle the repair.

 

Fit to Fat to Fit: Part of my junk TV viewing. Not just my life story which would be Fat to Fit to Fat while being sort of Fit. I watched this as one of Josh's best buddies little sister was featured on the latest episode, a former neighbor. She is now a fitness instructor in Manhattan and lost a few syllables of her last name. The premise of the show is how is a fat person ever going to relate to a skinny personal trainer so to increase the bond, the trainer has to get fat too so they can work together. And the fat person can't quit because look at the sacrifice the trainer made for him. Crazy right? So my skinny ex-neighbor is seen stuffing her face to gain 40 pounds, which she couldn't do as she kept throwing up all the food filmed for our pleasure, but she did pack on 30 pounds so the guy, a good 160 pounds over his healthy weight could relate. Even when she had only gained 5 pounds, her friends would tell her how big her butt was. But her client lost 60 pounds, a small drop in the fat bucket, but this was deemed a success.

 

Senior Day at the thrifts.  Need to wait for the roads to be treated. Don't  I have enough junk?

 

How I hate squirrels: they are eating everything. I can't run out the patio door as Steve has it all weatherstripped but after this weekend, the stripping comes down so I can maybe scare these pests off for good. Still haven't seen any new birds. The same old crowd of downies, titmice, juncos, cardinals, chickadees, nut hatches and the pesky ugly sparrows.