The Lost Late 90s

While cleaning out a closet, I found a box of photos I hadn't seen in years. Most of our photos are in another closet. Yep I do need to get organized. These are from 1996-1998 or so. Naomi was in kindergarten or first grade and the older kids in high school.

Steve has dental surgery this morning. As he will be sedated, I am going with him. Hope the roads are OK as there was some sort of ice storm overnight.

A miracle. I haven't coughed in a few hours. As my cold started Saturday, I really don't think I am contagious nearly a week out but my presence might make some nervous.We were having a mom's group tonight but that might be on hold.

My clematis looked so much better back then

In Disney World

Naomi and her cousin. She is 2 years older than Naomi and born in Michigan. I was at her birth. She is now working on a doctorate in NJ.

Homemade costume

With Grandma

Homecoming dance

I liked the lighting in this picture

Josh holding  our nephew who now is 17

My brother and his daughters. The twins will be 28 in 2 months

spider

Spud the pug pup eyeing Sasha

Spud would have been 17

Moonlight beach

why couldn't she stay small

The Never Ending cough

All is relative

This is truly the cold from hell. I go into these coughing jags that make me feel that I will cough up a lung. Still I felt better yesterday and took advantage of the sun ( 30 degrees!!!! Almost tropical) to run more than an hour along the river valley. I felt fine for the first half hour but then I started to sag. By night time, I felt awful again. On the positive side, I am getting a lot of reading done in the middle of the night.

After our river bank experience, we went for a drive to investigate where Josh thinks he will build a house. Not impressed plus if he wants me to help on a daily basis, the drive from here is not easy. I will have to persuade him to build closer to Shanna even if it is more expensive.

I had Steve run into a local coffee shop (I looked like hell). They automatically gave him the senior discount . He was taken back. When I had my gray hair, I was always offered these silly things but this was a first for him.

Right now he is consulting with a dental surgeon about the many things needed to be done in his mouth, implants, crown replacements etc.This will cost a lot as falling apart teeth is considered 'cosmetic'.
When he was growing up, his parents would throw various pop bottles on the table for beverages (although in NYC, the term used is 'soda'. Pop is only here in the Midwest) This was not good for his teeth. When I met him, he was in the process of getting all his molars capped. He was in his early twenties!!! Parents avoid this stuff. If it was up to me, I would never have let my kids drink this (they got their soda at the grandparents') And now, what was underneath the caps has decayed. One dental problem after another. And he spends lots of time on dental hygiene. Too late to undo his childhood though.

Right now I should be at my class but I don't feel well. This day of rest better make me better.

Frozen Shoulder

Every week in our LiveStrong  alumni class, we have a theme: this week it is using rubber bands for strength exercises. The advantages of these are that they are cheap and portable. With all sorts of good intentions, I bring these things when I am travelling. Times I used these while travelling? Zero. I also resolved to do some sort of strength training on the weekend. Thanks to Josh, we have a whole set of weights plus I have the therabands left over from my physical therapy days. No excuses..but I did have the cold from hell last weekend. I am still not fully recovered with my froggy voice, cough and constantly draining nose.

While explaining the bands, our instructor asked how many of us have gone through physical therapy. Almost every hand shot up. We are all cancer survivors though it isn't clear that cancer treatment was responsible for every fellow student's need for PT. My oncologist recommended it for me when she noticed a year out from diagnosis, I still couldn't lift my arm on the bad side. I am not sure which of the unholy trilogy (slash, poison and burn) was responsible. I am guessing radiation because during that phase, I had to be able to put my hands behind my head. Afterwards I could not. A woman in my yoga class had to delay radiation because she could not put her hands behind her head so the culprit in that case seemed to be surgery. Anyway, I declined the PT. I had gone through it before and knew the drill. Mobility to my shoulder has been restored to about 95% with all my stretching exercises. There is still some pain though.

Adhesive Capsulitis  aka  Frozen Shoulder. When the shoulder is not moved regularly, adhesions form and the joint fluid needed for mobility disappears making it even more difficult to move. Soon any movement is painful. I had broken the head of my humerus a year before entering Cancerland. They could not set the bone but said if I limited movement, it should heal on its own. I was also given the conflicting info that I would have to move it a little or I would get frozen shoulder. It hurt like hell to move the arm even a little. Two months later, the fracture was gone but the pain remained. I had a very severe case of frozen shoulder ad was sent 3x/week to PT. I had to take Vicodin to make these trips somewhat tolerable. One of the treatments consisted of me lying on my back while they pushed my arm back. When I started therapy, the angle my arm made with the table was about 45 degrees: ideal would be 180. By the time I quit, the angle was more like 135 degrees. They would push my arm back to the point of pain and hold it there. One therapist decided that I must be a wimp and pushed it beyond that point ignoring my screams. After that, I told him that would not ever happen again. I would consider it assault. I was given a bunch of exercises and equipment to be used at home including the therabands. The bill for PT was astounding though at the time, I had good insurance. After 3 months, I decided, I would treat myself. Still on the day I raced 750 miles to see Oliver's birth, I could not stretch out my left arm to pay the many tolls. EZ Pass would have been welcome. (I did get it for my many other trips). My left arm, the formerly broken one, is now just fine. The cancer arm, the right, is not completely though I can do almost everything I used to be able to do.

It is beautiful out but cold. I am waiting for the sun to burn a path through the ice that reformed overnight so I can run.

Winter projects

Favorite photo from Montreal being converted to canvas

Cotswold gardens

One of the many 16x20 photos of me as a toddler. Unfortunately the matting has yellowed

One of the wrapping paper maps

A series of lithographs purchased in York England of the town. Just now got around to hanging them up

I will have one wall in my dining room devoted to my favorite travel photos in canvas. I just ordered the above first two to join a photo of the Ponte Vecchio and another of the alleyways of Gagliano.
For our den, we bought several old maps and framed them. The maps are actually wrapping paper and cost about $3/sheet but look cool framed. We have ancient maps of lower Manhattan, England, Italy and the World.
My father never owned a digital camera but he would have liked the Cotswold photo as every flower is in focus. In the photo of me, every stitch of the sweater can be seen but not the eyes of the horse.Is this horse unusual?  I always thought the mane of a dark horse would be dark. In general, he avoided photographing dark animals especially against a light background. He printed all of his black and whites having a whole series of 'dodgers' that could be used to prevent one area of a print from becoming overexposed. I was allowed to dodge in his darkroom.

And it is snowing again!!!! I still have a cold but maybe I will have enough energy to go out today.
Poor Daniel was hit hard by the RSV virus (again!!!) and spent some time in the ER yesterday. His siblings were much more mildly affected. Even though he is a strong, healthy looking preschooler, being born with premature lungs has made him extra vulnerable. Once a preemie, always a preemie, they were told last night.
Still thinking of a winter escape. One plan already fell through.

Cold

I always thought that a cold was a strange name for an illness but for the past two days, I can see why it is aptly named. I just can not get warm. My skin is cold to the touch and my voice is even lower than usual. I just keep drinking hot liquids and hoping this will go away soon. No colds for 9 years and now 2 in a month...

Decluttering

Things I have uncovered in the last few days:

1. Electric calculator circa 1970. Functions: very basic. Presumably cost $150, a lot of money in those days. Does not work even if we plug it in. Steve reluctantly agreed to throw it away but I bet it's squirreled away somewhere.
2. I had winnowed my father's photo boxes from 15 down to one. Somehow they mysteriously expanded back to 3. More throwing out.
3. A big box containing something called WebTV. I don't recall ever using this. It looks expensive but it is obsolete.
4. An original Texas Instrument computer circa 1980. Memory was stored on a cassette recorder. Included are about 50 games with slightly better graphics than Pong.  I am not allowed to throw this out as someday it may be worth something. (I doubt it)
5. Fifteen maps from various years of the NYC subway system. About 5 of the Chicago system
6. Triplicates if not more of almost every state in the country
7. A huge folder containing information about Columbus, Indiana

Bags and bags of useless stuff are now gone but sadly this is only a drop in the bucket. Still would love to make financial records that are more than 10 years old disappear along with folders of monthly statements (wouldn't one yearly statement be enough?)

What else does one do on a snowy day? I did go out for a while as the bike path behind us is sort of clear and  a commercial office park nearby is fairly diligent about keeping the parking lots clear.  Our streets though are a slippery mess. Making plans now to escape this.

Achy Breaky Breast

 What is this gruesome photo of? My achy breaky breast. To be thorough, I should photograph  the huge difference in size between my 'good' breast and this. It is very firm to the touch. It would pass the Ann Landers test. ( Should you wear a bra? If your breast will hold a pencil, yes you should). Initially when I consulted the surgeon, she assured me that she could get everything out with 'good cosmetic effect". I guess what good is  varies with who is looking at it.

Since my seroma broke last month, the size difference has become even larger. The seroma still continues to leak though at a much slower rate. Seromas are very common in breast surgery, particularly in mastectomies but usually they disappear in a few months. Not much word about those which decide to explode 4 years later. Doctors are reluctant to drain them lest they get infected. But they will if they are painful. On the internet, there are cases of grapefruit size seromas in the armpit making it impossible to put ones arms down. But as soon as they are drained, they seem to fill right back up again.

The 70,000th visitor came to this website a few minutes ago. Readership is decling; perhaps I should lead a more exciting life?

Cold, windy and icy again.