Category: My Life

I am happy to announce that I lost one and a half pounds this week at Weight Watchers, bringing me even closer to my goal weight. Will I get there before we leave for our cruise? I sure hope so!

I also went to Boston for an appointment with my corneal surgeon. All is well with my right eye, but my left eye has a few problems. Thus I will be seeing my retinal surgeon in two weeks.

It’s funny, I always thought an eye was an eye, but it turns out that there are specialists for almost every part of your eye!

As we returned home, what did we spy? SNOW! I couldn’t believe it, although it certainly was cold enough. We didn’t have any accumulation, but he flurries were quite pretty and a very clear reminder that winter is on it’s way.

I was all upset today because I couldn’t find the owner’s manual for the super cool camera that I own. I mean, this baby can take fabulous pictures in all sorts of settings, and here I was, without the manual!

I searched high, I searched low. I found the manuals for all my other cameras past and present, but not for the super cool one we bought last year for our trip through the Panama Canal.

Now my knee has been bothering me a lot. It’s swollen and sore and every time I have to bend it, I want to scream a little. It’s an old skiing injury that reminds me that I am not Jean Claude Killy or Pica Boo Street!

Anyway, I was looking around wondering what I could do when I went to the Olympus website and found that I could download the owner’s manual there.

Wonderful! Except that it is 100 pages long!

So back I went to searching this darn house. It had to be here. I went to a closet where I actually found the box the camera came in and found 2 owner’s manuals in there! Unfortunately I do not speak or read French or Spanish.

**Groan!**

I did not give up. Sure this soon to be, muddled 50 year old brain could figure it out. I sat down with Greta. I asked her what I could have done with the book? She stared at me as if she were saying, “come on, you dummy, think!”

It was then I had an idea. I went into my bedroom and found the box with all my brochures and memorabilia from my Panama Canal trip. Slowly I opened the box and there it was lying right on top!

Okay I now feel like I am getting old. I mean, how many people place their camera’s owner’s manual in a memorabilia box?

It’s a good thing that Hubby loves me!

I was up before the day dawned. I needed to go to the hospital for more blood work, and I knew that I needed to be there early to beat the crowds. I have been there when I have had to wait for two hours to get my blood drawn. So, today I was prepared.

I left my house at 6:45 and arrived at the hospital just after 7. I walked in, expecting the large crowd, and found the lobby strangely empty! I mean really empty!

I checked in with a nice young lady who was ready to help one and all, but had nothing to do because of the lack of patients. She has the cutest dachshund, and we talked dogs while she did my paperwork.

Then before I knew it, my name was called, blood drawn and off I went. It was 7:30!

I had planned on there being crowds, and this would occupy my time until Weight Watchers and I would breeze in and enjoy that meeting, but here I was two hours before the meeting was due to start!

I filled up the car with gas ($2.69 a gallon!) and then drove to the meeting hall. I decided to just sit and wait in the parking lot. I had the morning news paper and that would give me something to do.

However, when I arrived there was a woman there who does our weigh-ins. Her name is Tami and I have known her since my very first meeting when she weighed me in. She was doing a few bits of paper work, but welcomed the company.

She offered to weigh me in early so I could eat, and I quickly stripped down to my shorts and tank top to do this.

I LOST 3 POUNDS!!!!!

I was so happy, that the last three week plateau had been broken and I was on my way in the right direction!

Tami and I talked and talked until other people began to arrive for the meeting. Eventually the meeting began, and although it wasn’t the best meeting (in that some are both fun, funny and exciting) it was a good pep talk and got me ready for the week ahead.

I left and came back home and sort of had a sinking spell. I know I am getting old because I really need my sleep and I suffer when I don’t get it! LOL!

I was having a nice quiet afternoon when Greta went outside with Hubby for about half an hour. When she came in she smelled so bad I could not believe it!

Why do dogs have to go out, find the worst smelling pile of crap and then roll in it?

She is now bathed, AGAIN and smelling nice! At least I think she is, she may have other ideas!

I got this message this morning when I woke up and logged onto my email.

31 days until your next cruise!
7-day Southern Caribbean Explorer
Ship: Caribbean Princess
Embarkation Port: San Juan, Puerto Rico
Number of Days: 7

I am really looking forward to this cruise and to getting away from it all. It’s been a really busy Autumn for us. A lot of running around, a lot of catch up work around the house, and some stress.

Mostly I get stressed about the little things. Isn’t that silly? I really shouldn’t, but I do. I need to learn to just let it roll off of my back, but I find it very difficult to do that.

I also need to not take things so personally and allow people’s words to hurt me so much. Yes, it’s been a tough fall.

Now I am looking forward to my 50th Birthday Cruise. That will be fun, relaxing and we will see several new Island Countries that we have not been to before.

Yes, I’ll be sending reports and pictures along the way. How could I leave you all behind? Oh yes! One month and counting!!!

I can hardly wait!!!

I was off to my hair stylist’s Tuesday afternoon and when I arrived I sat down in her chair with a frown and showed her this:

Flat hair on the top, wild sides and a style that was nearly impossible for me to do. Add to that the fact that it was making my face look fat and it all ads up to one unhappy lady!

Margarita went to work. I explained that I wanted layers and lots of them, while keeping my length. She cut and measured and cut some more. I glanced at the floor and was amazed at the amount of hair she had trimmed off. Apparently my hair had really gotten quite long and full.

Once she was done with the snipping, she gently fingered my hair while she blew it dry and these small curls formed.

Margarita styled it a bit fancier than I will, but she showed me how to encourage the curls and then to style my hair so that it actually is pulled back away from my face naturally.

I know from previous cuts that having this style will be easy for me. The really funny thing is that when I was a little girl, I had tight blond curls. Then one day in a fit of pique my mother cut them all off. After that my hair never grew back curly. Wavy, yes, but no curls.

Now, as I enter my 50’s I suddenly have found that my curls returned with a vengeance. I suppose I could cut them off again, but let’s face it, I can’t afford another 50 years for them to return!

I’ll be playing with the new style now and seeing what I can do.

What do you think?

******************************

PS: I opened the door at the end of the evening to walk Greta and found Fritz doing a frantic dance. The smell that hit me was so overwhelming that I knew he’d been hit by a skunk! While Hubby made an emergency run to the grocery store for tomato juice, I washed Fritz down with brown soap and rinsed him well. All this was done outside in the 54 degree weather!

Hubby returned from the grocery store and we started to wash Fritz with the tomato juice. Sponging it into his fur until he was completely covered. Then we got out the hose and started to rinse him off.

We now own a Pink German Shepherd!

He is now drying off in the basement where he will spend the night. I sure hope we got it all and that tomorrow Fritz will be back to normal. Well, besides the pink hue to his fur, that is!

LOL!!!

I went to the doctor with Hubby today to get the results of tests we both had recently. I expected to breeze through my exam and have Hubby be the patient with the problems. After all he is a diabetic, and he does have marginally high blood pressure, and he is twenty years older than me, so I thought that the tests might show a problem with one of his ailments.

Was I wrong. Apparently turning 50 causes ones body to melt down and turn to mush.

My cholesterol level is too high and I’ve been given 6 months to get it in line or he wants me to be on medication. My blood sugar is also incredibly low and he is concerned about that. And although my blood pressure is extremely low (I should probably be unconscious) I come to find out that the combination of low blood sugar and low blood pressure isn’t actually a good thing.

The highlight of the exam was finding out that he feels I am close to a good goal weight for a woman my age!

A woman my age!!!

Well, I knew it had to happen. I am close to becoming (in just about a month) a woman “my age”!

I never thought that 50 was old. Wait I did. I remember thinking that being 50 meant being close to having one foot in the grave, but then, I was 9 years old at the time. Now at 49 years and 11 months both my body and my brain are failing me.

As I looked in the mirror today I wasn’t too thrilled at the face that was peering back. So I started to check things.

Eyes? Not bad, although the lids are looking a little tired. Nose? Thankfully the plastic surgeon did a good job. Mouth? Still good, not many lines around the edges.

So what was wrong?

My hair.

It’s long, almost all one length now and I am totally unable to do it on a regular basis. I either leave it curly like Little Orphan Annie, or pull it into a pony-tail.

So while you are reading this, I will be at my favorite salon getting the hair cut into a style that says “WOW”! And is easy to keep under control.

I shall report tomorrow on the makeover!

I have had several people write and ask me about my recently posted eye pictures. I wrote about it a long time ago, but many of you have joined me since then. So let me post this link which will tell you the story of what happened to me, and my poor little eye back in 2002.

I’m quite lucky now. I have most of my vision, and my distance vision is perfect. About the only deficit I have is with my peripheral vision, and there isn’t much we can do about that. After what I went through I am very happy to have as much of my vision as I do have.

Yes, it was a very scary thing to go through. I can safely say that one of the greatest of all of my senses is my vision. To not be able to see the beauty around me would break me. So I thank God each and every day for doctors gifted and dedicated enough to have been able to operate and restore what was so cruelly taken from me.

The eyes are both doing well now and I simply have yearly visits to make sure that the eyes are remaining healthy.

Trust me, I will never again take my vision for granted!