Monday December 22 2025

Today Was a Great Day (No, Really — Even With the Weather)

Rebecca came in this morning like the multitasking saint she is — she toileted and fed the dogs, got me some coffee, and even turned up the heat in my room. For context: I go to bed roasting like a Thanksgiving turkey, and by 2 or 3 a.m., I’m waking up in an Arctic simulation. After my first cup of coffee, I’m usually thawed enough to function. Then after breakfast and cup #2 (because let’s not pretend one is enough), we get going with range of motion, getting dressed, and up in my chair like civilized people.

My brother took me to the hospital to pick up some gear for a sleep study. Apparently, when I sleep, my breathing gets so shallow the staff felt inspired to add oxygen to my CPAP like it was a high-altitude mission. I picked it up, brought it home, and I’ll do the sleep study tonight. Then I’ll return the gear tomorrow, ideally with fewer breathing plot twists.

After I got home, Rebecca and I took the dogs to the dog park because it was supposed to be cold and rainy all day — but surprise! The sun came out. Oregon, you confusing little weather gremlin.

Brooklyn and her son came over to help clean and sort through stuff before the next birthday party. I love that our house has become the house for birthdays — the kind of place where people show up with cake and leave with glitter in their eyebrows. I had some of those black and yellow storage bins in my room full of stuff that’s needed sorting since roughly 2006, and it felt amazing to finally go through them. Anything I didn’t want went to Rebecca’s nonprofit, and anything they don’t need will go to someone who does. It’s so much easier to part with stuff when you know it’s not just going to sit in a landfill next to someone’s broken fax machine from 1998.

After that, I hung out in my room with the dogs for a bit. Then the whole family went to check out the GLOW Christmas light show in Keizer. It was cold — and naturally, just as we got there, it started raining, because of course it did. But we decided to brave it like soggy little champions.

I was cruising down the rubber mats they lay down for accessibility, but those things folded up under my chair like a cheap tent in a windstorm. I had a big heavy-duty blanket on, which quickly turned into a wet weighted cape of doom. It started dragging my arms down like I was fighting a boss battle against damp fleece. My niece tried to help, but she was also wrangling her kids in a stroller, so it was less of a rescue and more of a slow, cold, heroic crawl back to shelter.

I eventually made it back to the heater and tried to dry off, but the general consensus was “Yeah… no,” and everyone decided to bail and go home. Despite the rain and minor hypothermia vibes, it was still so good to be together. The lights really were beautiful — it would’ve just been nicer if the weather hadn’t staged a surprise attack.