Cards? Not a Topic of My Blog Till Now.

 We played cards last evening with friends in Santa Fe. A big night out for us. Jeff and Joe invited us. They are the card players and were eager to teach four neophytes. Sam and Alan, Leon and I were game, so to speak. I don't think any of the four of us were really card players and certainly not card sharks.

The game was "Pennies from Heaven" and was a variation on a variation of some some other similar game (Hand and Foot?). 

Whoever came up with the algorithm for this game was either a genius or a sadist. I think we were using six decks of cards for six players. Sevens, threes, red, black, books, wild cards. Alan and I were getting a bit confused. Leon and Sam seemed to pick it up rather quickly.

Here are the rules (with slight variations as far as I can tell):

https://gamerules.com/rules/pennies-from-heaven/

This is very similar to what we were playing with a few variations.

   

Well, it was fun to get together. We played the game, had some laughs, had some libations and ate good food.(My homemade focaccia with sausage, gorganzola and caramelized onions; cheese and crackers; shrimp with cocktail sauce; cherry pie) 

The main thing is that we were with good friends for the evening.

Alan suggested however, that the next time he and I do some knitting while the others play cards. I said, "If you think I can mess up a game of cards, just wait till you see what I do with a ball of yarn." 

Celebrating 8 Years Married and 34 Years Together

 Happy Anniversary!

Leon & Frank

We've gone through a lot of changes since we met in 1988. I was 40, Leon/Lee was 26. Just a bambino. To this day whatever brought us together and kept us together is a mystery. 

Lee, the bambino, has grown cuter every year and I, I have grown older and older and greyer and wrinklier with every year. What he sees in this old man is beyond me!

I am so fortunate to have Leon in my life. We have weathered storms and illnesses and have been strong for one another during some trying times. And we've had three dogs to share our lives and travels with.

Well. I don't want to get too sentimental and mushy...so.

I've picked out a few photos.- all selfies or pics of us together. I don't have 34 pics because there were several years between 1994 and 2001 that are missing photos...Was that before cell phones? 

Also I am not great at keeping track of dates. The photos that I scanned weren't always dated and even the early digital photos do not have date stamps. I have dated some photos with (circa) because, well, close enough.

(circa) 1988

(circa) 1989

1991

1992

1993

(circa) 1994

(circa) 1995

(circa) 1999

2001

2002 (too much salt in my pepper)

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009 - (I think I stopped dying my hair and beard after that)

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014 - Our Wedding Day October 25, 2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

 

Road Fatigue? Yeah, That's the Ticket

Please indulge this interlude while I continue to prepare photos from our trip for a future post(s).

I often get TEXT messages from political candidates and the like, usually asking for donations and ending with a notice to text "STOP" if I no longer wish to receive text messages from this group.

So imagine how puzzled I was when we saw this sign on an Interstate Highway, I think it was in Pennsylvania.

 I turned to Leon and asked "Why would you have to text "STOP" at the rest area? And who do you text it to?

I blame it on having spent too many hours on the road.

Fortunately we both had a good laugh at my expense.

The Body is Back From Vacation But the Spirit Hasn't Yet Arrived

 The Body is Back From Vacation But the Spirit Hasn't Yet Arrived back to the Land of Entrapment. I will just say that the Province Lands and Cape Cod National Seashore is as glorious as ever.

I will post photos one of these days but, for today, let me just share some very different videos: 

Here is a trailer for "Bros" - a gay RomCom which Hubby and I and some friends saw today. We enjoyed it immensely although I imagine not everyone will share that reaction. It is funny, serious, obnoxious at times, sentimental, sexy, over the top (Billy Eichner as Bobby can be obnoxious - enough already!), engaging, and entertaining at a time when we all need some frivolous enjoyment and diversion. Not to mention Luke McFarland. And the fact that a number of scenes are filmed in Provincetown, where we have spent many a vacation, including this past one.

Recommended.

  

 

 

On a completely different wave length is this from the Interfaith Alliance:

I would direct you to the enlightening comments by Wajahat Ali at time mark 6:35 and 50:30

Unfortunately this type of analysis and discussion does not get wide coverage or attention in the media.

WHY?OMING

So, after 32 years together, I underestimated Leon's powers of persuasion - again. I was content to stay home. 

But Leon had it in his mind to check out a camper that he'd seen on Craig's List. A used (2006) 24 foot Arctic Fox Fifth Wheel. They don't make them that small anymore and we have a limited parking spot across from our house.

I saw the photos and was unimpressed, but Leon saw the photos and saw his dream camper. "It will be good to get away. We really need a road trip. So sick of doing nothing this past year. It will do us good." And a number of other persuasive arguments.

Problem was, the coveted camper was in Wyoming. A seven and a half hour drive not counting eating, peeing and walking the dog.

The dog. That was problem number two. Benni is not doing great. The past few months he's been having a problem with his hind legs. The vet says it's likely a neurological problem. Apparently it's fairly common although I'd never heard of it. If we want to get a CT scan or MRI for $1300 plus the consulting fee we could get a better diagnosis. 

A better diagnosis will not provide any particular options for a cure. There likely is no cure. Something is obstructing the messages from Benni's brain to his hind quarters. He is not walking normally. He stumbles occasionally. He poops while walking and leaves a trail. We will take Benni with us of course.

We decided to drive about 5 hours and stay in Colorado Springs for one night. "Soul, Community, Planet" - SCP - an interesting hotel, dog friendly, environmentally friendly, liberal values. They donate a tree to re-forestation of the rainforest or something for each guest. Unfortunately there was only a paved parking lot to walk the dog. Not a tree on the property. Oh, well.

We checked out "Garden of the Gods Nature Center" before checking in. I guess I was tired from the drive. We didn't have the time or energy to hike the trails and Benni might not have appreciated a hike either, so we drove through.  So it was a lot of rocks.

Photos below of SCP - The hotel in Colorado Springs. 

We ordered pizza and ate in the hotel. We won't eat inside a restaurant, no matter what the state says is OK. Nice hotel, but I DID NOT SLEEP FOR A SECOND ALL NIGHT! Why? I couldn't tell you except that I was wired like I was on some kind of amphetamine or a gallon of caffeine. Horribly long night.

We drove another 3 hours the next day. The highlight of the trip for me was a stop in Denver to splurge at an Italian imports market. Capicolla, Mortadella con pistacchio, Prosciutto, Capa Cavallo,  Pancetta. Stuff I cannot find in New Mexico. Heaven.

Multiply this photo by 1 million = Wyoming

So, bottom line: the camper in Wyoming was not Leon's dream. We had planned to stay in Cheyanne overnight but did you ever read the reviews of hotels in our price range? Actually we would have chosen a better hotel but the good ones were all booked up. So we decided to just put miles behind us and head south.

I drove most of the way. Lucky I didn't fall asleep at the wheel. Leon drove. We made it to Pueblo Colorado by around 5 PM and went through the stress of finding a hotel. I stopped reading the reviews. Leon drove into the parking lot of one and went in and booked a room. I was exhausted from lack of sleep and didn't care anymore. I think it was a Best Western. Not cheap, but comfortable. 

The rooms were accessible from an inner corridor instead of my preference - door directly to outside - preferred both because of COVID and having the dog. Our room was on the second floor. We had to exit through the lobby to walk the dog. I worried that Benni might have to go out during the night. What if he didn't make it and pooped all down the hallway? So we walked him for a good hour before going to bed. Still I worried.

So our very needed getaway turned out, for me, to be a very stressful weekend. Pretty much a weekend from hell. The saving grace is that Leon and I get along, even under stress and he is always supportive (even though it was his idea to drive to friggin Wyoming and cause me all the stress in the first place).

Just an update: Benni had acupuncture today. Hey, I am a sceptic but we'll give it a try. Leon and I got notice that we can get our COVID vaccine #1 on Friday. That is a relief.

Benni walking.

My Insomnia, Dale Carnegie and Dad

I was probably in junior high when my dad, Dominic, and my Uncle Tony, decided to take a Dale Carnegie course, "How to Win Friends and Influence People." 

I'm not sure how they heard about it or what exactly motivated them to take the course. Maybe they wanted to win friends and influence people. They practiced saying/shouting things like "MAN! AM I ENTHUSIASTIC!"

I remember dad and Uncle Tony both becoming more outgoing and feeling a little bit embarrassed by dad's new self-confident attitude and sometimes loud expressiveness. It seemed phony. 

I thought, "What has Dale Carnegie done to my father?"

Fast forward to shortly after dad's funeral when my brother, my sister and I were going through his things and getting ready for an "estate" sale. There wasn't much of an "estate." More like what we refer to back East as a "tag sale" or what others call a yard sale or a garage sale. 

In one of the dresser drawers I found the little booklet of Dale Carnegie's Little Golden Book of Rules. I have a lot of Mom's kitchen pots, pans, and gadgets, some linens and other items but of dad's belongings I have mostly tools and the like. Except I saved the Dale Carnegie Little Golden Book of Rules.

Maybe because it was instrumental in making over my dad into someone I didn't know.

Fast forward to sometime in my late thirties. I must have mentioned to my doctor some issue with sleep. Off to the sleep clinic to get wired up and try to sleep. Well I didn't sleep and they seemed to blame me for wasting their time.

A few years later my brief experience with Ambien was a nightmare.

Over the years I've continued to have sleep issues. I've mentioned it on this blog on several occasions. I've known people who use a CPAP. One stayed with us in a motel room once and the contraption kept ME awake all night and I wasn't the one wearing it. 

The thought of strapping that thing on my face terrifies me. 

Maybe it's a throwback to when I was 5 years old and had my tonsils out. The anesthesia back then was ether and they administered it by holding a kid down and putting this gas mask over his nose and mouth and making him breath in the noxious gas. It was Torture.

So my next sleep study was at 60. Didn't sleep much.

After the 2016 election I kept waking up in a panic, thinking, "It can't be. He can't be our president," and then being unable to go back to sleep. Four years of that.

This past summer I've been a chronic insomniac at least 5 nights a week and the other two nights I might sleep four hours give or take. Often it is one or another ache or pain or other proprioceptive stimuli keeping me awake. Once in a while it is Leon's snoring, but that is rare.

We, the medical profession, have tried gabapentin thinking perhaps it's restless leg syndrome. No, it didn't help.  

Not sleeping much has made me quite anxious. I don't have many worries except not sleeping. Not sleeping and the thought of not sleeping keeps me up at night.

So I just had another in-home sleep study a couple of weeks ago. I worried about it all day. Didn't sleep AT ALL.

The sleep hygiene routine the doc gave me required me to get out of bed if not asleep in 10 to 15 minutes, engage in a quiet activity like reading till drowsy and return to bed; repeat as necessary.

Well, feeling under pressure to fall asleep in 15 minutes just made things worse.

Especially because I don't want to get out of bed and engage in any activity. I don't WANT to read, or watch TV, or twiddle my thumbs. I just WANT TO SLEEP!

I finally just said to hell with it and went with the old Italian saying, Che sera, sera. Whatever will be will be. That actually helped some. I was getting a few hours sleep most nights.

Then, a week or so ago I was going through a box of mementos and came across Dale Carnegie's Little Golden Book of Rules. 

I flipped through it. Lots of basic do unto others type stuff. Be a good listener. Become genuinely interested in other people. Fill your mind with thoughts of peace, courage, health and hope. Count your blessings. You get the picture.

And then there on the last page, the very last bit of advice from old Dale was this:

6. Don't worry about insomnia.

Good night.

Rambling Thoughts and Loose Ends

I don't post here very often anymore. Perhaps it's because I don't have a lot to say about anything...at least nothing that anyone would find interesting.

Sure, I could post photos of every loaf of bread I bake or the the King Cake and jambalaya from Tuesday's dinner or the stuffed peppers and stuffed eggplant that I made two weeks ago or pics of Benni, the Dog doing dog things.

Our Mardi Gras was not as Elegant at Russ' and MP's

A View of Cochiti Lake

We took a day trip to Los Alamos (it's only 17 miles from Cochiti if you're a crow, but it's 68 miles (1 hour, 15 minutes) via Santa Fe or 110 miles (2 hour,s 20 minutes via Jemez Springs). The old route via an unimproved and slightly scary Dome Road, was 36 miles but took about 1 hour and 30  minutes).

In other words you can't get there from here (easily).

We stopped at the nearby Valles Caldera - the remnant of an ancient volcano. At over 11,000 feet it has it's own climate.

Moisture on the windshield caused the effect

In Los Alamos Smith's (Kroger's) Supermarket is on steroids. Competing with WalMart, but classier. It has a Pub with Beer on Tap if you aren't interested in shopping with the hubby.

And a whole section for clothing

Back in Santa Fe, near the Frank Ortiz Dog Park is a plaque commemorating those Japanese Americans who were interred in a camp there during World War II. Not many people know that Japanese-Americans were transported to this Santa Fe location and imprisoned for being of Japanese ancestry out of the fear and bigotry that grew out of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Italian class was going well, so long as we were focused on conversation...I did live in Rome for nine months when I was a Junior in college, a lifetime ago, so started this class with a little knowledge...but when we started to conjugate verbs I got so confused.

I can use the same verbs in various tenses in conversation, but when asked to just conjugate them out of context...that is an exercise in frustration. I'll have one more class next week and then I'll be on my own...unless there will be another "more advanced" class.

Had my annual physical recently and as usual it involved some referrals for updated bloodwork (my bad cholesterol is good and my good cholesterol isn't so good and my triglycerides are high which is status quo for me).

Also got a referral for a ultrasound of my bladder and prostrate (because I mentioned frequent bathroom trips at night).

One of the "nice things about getting older" is I am getting to visit the various medical facilities and clinics in Santa Fe!

Well, the "prep" involved drinking 32 ounces of water 1 hour before the test, which I did. I drove into town and walked into the testing facility unable to hold it any longer. I told the receptionist that I HAD to use the restroom.
"OK," she said, "but just go a little."
"Impossible," I said.

When I was done she gave me two more glasses of water and by the time I was called in for the ultrasound I was at the bursting point again.

Thankfully the "full bladder" test was over within minutes; After a a restroom break I got the "empty bladder" exam. (all the tests came back OK).

But what I got in the mail this week was enlightening. A bill/statement.

Amount charged $ 389.00
Adjustment           $ 342.30
Insurance Paid    $   26.17
Patient Balance     $   20.53

So this is with a Medicare Advantage Plan. The "adjustment" is what the plan has brokered with the provider to just deduct from the bill. So does the provider just eat the $342 or is the charge just an arbitrary, inflated number to make it look like I'm getting a bargain?

If the charge is legit, the service provider is losing a lot of money. People with no insurance presumably pay the full price...and they are subsidizing Medicare/Medicare Advantage.

And just an added level of complexity, there are maybe 10 different Medicare "Supplement" plans offered by each private insurance company that come with a monthly premium that is NOT cheap.

Just saying..."Medicare for All" may not be what it promises to be.