Monday was a perfect day! Karen came in and fed the hungry kid, fed me, and then got me dressed up in my chair. My friend Sheri messaged me a couple of these ago And said that she was going to be passing through; I later found out that she wasn't passing through; she came all the way here to see me! I love this gal! She is so much fun to hang around! She said she would be here around 3 PM. Dude and I took off for a cruise over to the wharf, it was such a beautiful day, and the waves were amazing! I try to cruise up and down the wharf at least once a day because it always makes me feel good; it's a perfect way to end/begin your day. Almost everybody I run into seems really happy and just glad to be alive. It was really windy on the wharf, so I ended up taking way too many pictures of birds stalled in the air because of trying to fly against the wind; there was a couple of kids and parents having a good time running through the birds; on the ground… Somebody dropped a couple loaves of bread. It was time to cruise back and meet up with Sheri; I was so excited! As I was cruising back through Depot Park, there was a couple of guys fencing, so I pretended like Dude was going to the bathroom, and I snack a couple pictures of them. When we come home, it was so nice outside, so Dude and I just kicked back in the driveway and waited for Sheri, she is a visiting nurse. She has many clients with coronavirus, and I can even imagine how scary it would be to have to go into somebody's house, but she's done it for so long it's just second nature for her. She is so knowledgeable and caring, she is perfect for the job! She showed up, and we got to spend a couple of hours catching up before my caregiver came into put me to bed, one to take her out somewhere for dinner, but she wasn't, so after Adriana came into put me to bed and feed the knucklehead we spend some more time catching up… I could tell that she was exhausted, so we agreed to get up and go to Zachary's for breakfast in the morning before she left. She has a three-week vacation, and she's driving around to spend some time with her family; one of her daughters has a new baby, so she was really excited to get to hold her finally. We had a really nice breakfast and then said goodbye, it would be nice if she was really ahead of schedule and stop by again on her way back, but I know it was out of her way. Now that everything slowing down will be able to spend more time together, maybe even the whole mountain girl crew. The last time we were all together with her, Teresa, Marica, and Melodie, I had some shirts made that said the year, and I think it said something like country girls reunion… She had the shirt on; I wish I would've thought about it; I would've dug mine out and were also. Dude and I cruised home, and I just watch TV until Adriana came in; she fed the hungry pooch, put me to bed, and then fed me. She did a couple loads of laundry and helped me set up an application for a caregiver on DocuSign, I really learned a lot from her, and I know it's something that's going to come in handy when I need to find another caregiver. It felt really great to do it myself. After she left, I started editing my pictures, and I was thinking to myself, "how come I didn't take more pictures of Sheri and me?" I listen to some music and then watch to be until I fell asleep.
Tuesday was another great day; these days, all the days I get out of bed in my chair are great days! Cindy came in and fed Dude, fed me, and then got me dressed and up in my chair. Dude and I took off for a cruise down to the wharf, and then we had to cruise back down for my dentist appointment. Some of my teeth cracked because I grind them so much in my sleep, and when I get anxious, they just did cleaning and then made another appointment in a couple of weeks to start fixing my cracked teeth. I always love visiting with my dental hygienist; she's always so upbeat and sweet! We cruised back, and Cindy took me to my appointment with Yasel, a Dominican outpatient rehab, she has gotten rid of almost all of my pain, and it feels perfect to start doing exercises again. I always do them for a while, and then as soon as I don't have a therapist there to watch me, I stop, but I'm going to keep it going this time because I have very few problems with my exercises and stretches. I'm starting to look up exercises that you can do in a chair and with limited mobility; I'm hoping maybe at some point we can get enough people interested at the support group to have a class… Even if it's virtual. After my appointment, Cindy brought us back home, and I watch TV while I waited for Adriana to come and put me to bed; after she said the hungry mongrel, she fed me, cleaned up, and wiped everything down and then left. I played cribbage online until I fell asleep; in the game, I play online; there's always a guy there, but he always makes the same general comments, so I wonder if it's a robot? I always answer him because if it is a real person, I don't want to be rude; it's probably not very nice to be rude to a robot either? I'm pretty sure that he cheats anyway. That's the last thing I remember thinking before I drifted off to sleep.
Wednesday was another perfect day. Susan came in to give me a nice long massage; I don't know how she always knows the exact spot where it hurts… I guess that's why she's good at what she does? My aunt used to massage my uncle all the time, and if I remember right, she said you can feel the muscles bulging and go where there is heat. Karen came in, and we did some personal care and, of course, a nice long hot bath. After a massage and a nice relaxing bath, I always tend to stay in bed, but I need to try to start getting up every day; I didn't get up much during most of the pandemic, and I just started getting a little bit too comfortable in my bed watching TV and listening to music. By the time I do end up getting up on Wednesdays, there's really not a lot of time left before my evening caregiver comes in, but it does make me feel a lot better to cruise around and especially cruise down to the warfarin at the ocean. I texted my brother Stanley to see if you wanted to meet me on the corner by 711 and go down to the farmers market downtown and get some rotisserie chicken, ribs, fingerling potatoes with sea salt, and a bag of salad… I love how they put edible flowers in their salad mixings. We texted my uncle and aunt on the way home I ended up having a really nice dinner. Adriana came in and put me to bed after she fed the hungry little guy, and then it was my turn to eat; notice who always fed first? I don't know if it's because he's way cuter than I am or because he stares at you with those adorable eyes until you feed him. I listen to some music and watch TV until I fell asleep.
Thursday was a pretty good day. Karen came in and fed the hungry hound dog, fed me, and then got me dressed and up in my chair. Dude and I had just enough time to cruise over to the wharf before we headed through downtown and onto my appointment with Jessica to get my hair done; it's so nice to be able to make all of these appointments again because this pandemic really did a lot of damage to my hair and body… I used to think I didn't look like I was ready to turn 60, but I feel like now I do. I've also noticed that pretty much everyone I know and people I've got to know online are all looking and feeling older, I think my attitude has changed a lot for the better, and I have a lot less social anxiety than I used to; so that's good! After my appointment with Jessica, I usually have just about enough time to make it home before Joy comes in; my evening caregiver usually comes in towards the visit with Joy. Adriana came in and fed the starving pup, put me to bed, and then fed me. By the end of the day, I usually freeze and just want to come home and turn the heater way up and feel comfortable; I feel a little bad that my caregivers come in from working all day and have to deal with my hot bedroom… Most of them don't complain, and I try to make it warm enough for me yet cool enough for them. Adriana helped me put an application on DocuSign so that applicants can fill it out and send it right back to me without printing it, filling it out, and then sending it back. It took a while to start getting any applications; I put an ad on UCSC jobs, care.com, indeed, and Craigslist… I usually don't like Craigslist, but I have found a couple of excellent caregivers on that site, so I thought I would try again since I'm not having any luck anywhere else. It's not just me; I have many people messaging me asking me if I know of any good caregivers. I'm trying to redo all of my schedules and everything to make it more professional, so next time I'm looking, it will make it a lot easier. Adriana did a couple of loads of laundry, cleaned up and wiped everything down, and then went home for the evening. I tried to look around for some other sites to put a job description for a caregiver. When I first get into bed and move up to the computer, I always like to play a couple games, a candy crush, just to settle down a little bit. Still, these days it seems like by the time I get settled down, my arm is too sore to do anything except watch TV, so I'm behind on my blog again, I almost get caught up, and then something happens for a couple of days, and I get way behind again. I watched TV until I fell asleep.
Friday was a really long day. Susan came in to give me a nice long massage; I don't know what I would do without this lady these days! It seems like I'm just sore all the time, and it's not getting better; after a couple of days, we had really nice warm weather, and I felt a lot better but then started getting cold again and my body's just not made for cold anymore. I have acclimated a lot since I moved here, that and I just learned to bundle up a lot more. Karen came in, and we did some personal care and a nice long hot relaxing bath; it took most of the day, so I decided to just stay in bed and take advantage of the fact that my brother is here to take to his vet appointment… I usually like to take him myself to talk to the doctor, but I'm just exhausted. I pretty much just listen to music all day and try to relax and not move too much in the bed; I feel like the more I move in bed, the more I feel like my muscles are ripping inside my body. If I could just lay still for a couple of days, I would be a lot better off, but I get bored and start using my arm again, and then everything gets sore and start all over again. I can't wait until this summer; I just want to get up, go outside, be nice and toasty, and have nothing hurt. I was looking around online, and I saw on Facebook that one of the supervisors over at the wharf was retiring, and they all threw him a really nice retirement party; I have known Jon for several years. He's not only charming and friendly, but he has a female lab that looks a lot like my Robby. It just looks like an enjoyable place to work. I don't know where they got the cake, but it was really awesome, so of course, I lifted off of the Santa Cruz municipal wharf Facebook page and put them on my blog. mI watch TV until I fell asleep.
Saturday was a really long day. Karen came in, it was Cindy's birthday, and she took the weekend off and fed the hungry knucklehead. She fed me, and I guess while she was looking for my breakfast options, she noticed that everything in the freezer was really sick with frost, the freezer door sometimes doesn't close all the way, and if it gets left open, it just ruins everything. I decided to stay in bed, and Karen agreed to take everything out of the freezer that can be salvaged and throw the rest away; I do shop way too much because I want to make sure when my family comes to visit that I have everything here that they could need/want. Still, I usually end up with a lot of food, and I don't really eat a lot that much anymore. This is a good lesson, and I'm going to try to only have here fruits and vegetables, meat, cheese, and crackers so this won't happen again. It will be hard, but I know I can do it; they already agreed that I would cut way back on my shopping, and I'm doing a pretty good job. Heather came by, and at first, she was agitated because she had made me a lot of soups, and I guess they would have still been good in the Mason jars. Even if they had frostbite on them, I just really paranoid, and I don't want to get sick. Towards the end of the day, she texted me and said that she has done that more times than she could remember; I don't know what else I could do besides having somebody check and make sure the freezer is closed before they go home, but there are so many things to check I just can't think of all of them. Even though I probably shouldn't eat them, I went through this phase where I just wanted noodles and wasn't hungry, and nothing sounded perfect, and then when my caregivers did bring me a plate of food, I could only eat a couple of bytes and then I was full, or it upset my stomach… I don't know why but for some reason, I was always hungry for kimchi noodles. Karen went home but agreed to come back in the evening because Adriana was celebrating Cindy's birthday with her and didn't want to come in. In between resting my arm, I cruised around all day online, and I found the most adorable picture of my cousin's husband and her daughter; they have the sweetest family I have ever met, and they're so loving and caring. I also found a castle picture that some guy made out of rocks and seashells; it was so awesome! I saw this plant in the backyard, and Dude can't keep his nose out of it, so I decided I better look it up and see if it was poisonous, and sure enough, it was; the neighbor has fruit trees and some of the branches hanging over my yard, so I know apples and plum sometimes get caught in there and would do would go out when it's dark I could tell if he came rushing in and went straight to his kennel that he probably had something in his mouth… It took me a while to figure it out, but after my caregivers left, I would hear him tromping on something, and he's not supposed to have anything in his kennel at night, so we soon figured it out. The jig is up, Dude! It was national sibling day, so my brother put a picture of us from the last time we were all here together, that was a nice surprise… I had totally forgotten about that picture! I have the best siblings ever! I also found some really cool lighthouse pictures; I'm trying to find some local stunning pictures to make a calendar… I know nobody uses a calendar anymore, but I still do, and since the pictures are so beautiful, I really have a lot of people that want one, so I make extra. Karen came back in to feed the hungry guy, feed me, and then she went home for the evening. I listen to music for a while, started an audiobook, and then fell asleep.
Sunday was another long relaxing day. Karen came in, Cindy is still off, and fed the hungry hound dog. She got me something to eat and put me on my side, and we started some personal care; usually, we start around noon, but since Cindy is out, Karen agreed to come in early so we can get everything done early. I got to take a nice long hot relaxing bath and go back to bed, my favorite time on Sunday evenings because then I get to eat, I'm at my computer, and I had a little piece of THC toffee… I'm ready to relax and watch ninety-day fiancé. I listen to some music and edited pictures until I fell asleep.
