On the mend.....

 A little taste of New Year's Eve at our house in a few days...    ;D

I am returning to my usual self ~ I thought I would be at work today, but yesterday I had another bout with nausea and decided to treat myself to another day at home.  So, I've been planning the food for New Year's Day, for the couple we invited to come over a month ago.  I hope they are still planning to come!  Just wondering if they are hesitant since I've been sick for a week :-)  Maybe I better check to see if they're still planning on coming before I do too much more.

So, I've missed the Nativity services at church, and a wedding yesterday.  I am bummed about that, but life moves forward, so I'm doing my best to focus on today.

My grandson, who is 1 1/2, has been so sick with allergies and an ear infection.  My DIL said he is feeling much better and hopes he'll be back to his usual by the weekend.  I certainly hope so, he sounded so terrible on the phone on Christmas. 

Well, I want to take advantage of feeling better and finish cleaning out my closet, do some laundry, and clean my stove top.   Fun times!

Love, 365

Merry Christmas to all!....

 Ok, I'm a day late.....the reasons are both good and bad 🎄  Hmmm, while I tell you the bad, I'll see if I can dredge up how there's some good somewhere.

On Wednesday we had our office Christmas party.  It would be the last for so many of us ~ one of the long term employees gave her notice last week (shocking pretty much everyone) ~ the other four, which includes me, are retiring at various points in time by mid-summer.  So, I had taken more care with my white elephant gift than I had in the past, and curled my hair (lol, that is a big deal) and went off to work.  It had been decided that everyone attending the party would need to have a rapid Covid test that morning before the 2 pm party.  There are a few other folks that were coming, retirees, and one of our largest supply reps.  As usual, we would work half the day, then go to the restaurant for the party.  Around noon people that could started to peel off and go home to change, or go to the restaurant early.  I was one of the last to leave, discovering a number of computers weren't turned off, shutting everything down as I walked out to my car.  As I walked through the parking lot, I thought ~ hmmmm, I don't feel great.  I feel ok, but not great.  Dismissed that and drove on to the destination, which isn't far from work or home, which turned out to be quite lucky.  For me.  Sort of.

I arrived, and as I got out of my car, I thought ~ no, I really feel weird.  I peeled off my coat thinking maybe I was just too warm.  Grabbed the gift and went in.....and almost instantly went in to the restroom to vomit.  So, you see, I missed the last Christmas party...because I doubt I will go to next year's, even if I'm invited.  It'll be too odd, and I won't know or have any kind of relationship with all the new people.  Truthfully, I probably wouldn't go any way, even if there weren't lots of new people.  Not to mention a new dentist. 

I spent the next 72 hours horribly nauseated and not to be disgusting, but the other end wasn't much better.  So, not covid, which confirmed my negative test Wednesday morning.  I could not eat, and was barely able to hold down liquids.  Lost about 5 pounds from Wed - Sat.  I was able to move around a bit by Christmas day, and had a little food, and today I've been much better.  But if I over do my activity, I feel like I'm going to faint.  No stamina, and a slight headache.  I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy, it was truly dreadful.  You know, a simple gastroinstestinal virus.  They show up at the most inopportune times.  

My poor Romeo had to care for me, and although I survived :-) he leaves a lot to be desired as a nurse.

No, of course, I would never say that to him.  

So, I've been thinking about the good part of all this, and I haven't really come up with anything.  I caught up on my sleep?  Oh, yeah, there is the loss of pounds, but of course, that won't last, haha.  

I already told my OM that I won't be in on Tuesday, and that will be true even if I feel good enough to run a marathon.  (imagine an evil grin)

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas!  I am looking forward to New Years, we are have a couple over for gumbo, which is sort of my specialty dish....and the rug I ordered for the dining room will be here tomorrow, so it looks like my luck is changing a bit.

Love, 365

Uh oh..........

 

It started with a bit of pain in my hip.  Arthritis I figured.  It would come and go....and eventually I noticed it is better if I kept active.  The inactivity of the pandemic made it a little worse until the spring and we got out more often.  There were brief periods I didn't notice it much at all.

I don't know what changed things a few weeks ago.  I began to notice my lower back was achy.  Sometimes a little, sometimes more.  

Yesterday it was no more noticeable than any other day, until I went to bed.  Walking up at midnight with horrible pain shooting up and down my leg and lower back.  I couldn't sleep, it was too much.  I got up and took some ibuprofen, snuck downstairs and waited for the pain reliever to work.  An hour and a half later I went back to bed, found a comfortable position and fell back to sleep.  It was a bit uncomfortable when I woke up, but the hot shower helped, and I managed to make it to work.  

So, apparently I have experienced a bit of sciatica.  I am ready for tonight though, I have my heating pad ready, and plan to do some stretching, more heating pad, more ibuprofen, and hopefully no waking up at midnight.  I've always felt so blessed and grateful that I'd never had back pain....now I know why I was so grateful!  That pain made me gasp, it was so intense.  

The bad news:  can't get in to a massage therapist for at least 6 weeks....that long to get in to my doc too.  I haven't tried my acupuncturist yet.  It's been so long, I don't even know if she's still operating her business.  So, I guess I work on it myself and hope that it will settle down a bit.  Sheesh.

Yesterday I received a check from the Treasury Department for a bit over $500 ~ all it said was that it was a refund of "ss ins".  I puzzled over that, wondering what that's about.  This morning I checked it out on Google, and was a bit alarmed at seeing reports of fraudulent checks.  Finally found a site that verifies that the check is for real.  But to be safe, I stuck it in a bank I use here in town (my main bank is in Texas).  

Then today I get the letter that explains what the darn check is for ~ the social security department is finally refunding me the overlapping payments to part B when I applied for and received my ss checks.  It took a whole year.  A year.  Government.  A model of inefficiency.  Bah, humbug.

Love, 365

Oh, this is too good........

 Before I get into this, I can't comment on any of your comments, nor can I comment on any of your blogs....a little glich on bloggers part?  Or maybe my computer....

Oh, yes, the rooster here has a point in this story....

My youngest son, in his middle 30s, is single.  He's never had a long term relationship ~ he's not spent the time, nor does he apparently feel the need.  He dates someone for a month or two and then it's over.  He may end up as one of those lifelong bachelors you hear about.  I was hoping he would get married and have a child or two, but a parent's hope often goes unrealized, haha. 

Anyway, he recently started a new job, and he is back to being a diesel mechanic.  Prior to this he took on a job in a garage dealing more with the public, but after a year he hated it.  He's a lot like Romeo, he has very little patience with fools and I imagine he had to deal with a lot of them at that particular garage.  It looks like mechanics are in short supply, which sadly means he is currently working 12 hour days, and has been having mechanical problems with his own car.  He's stressed and tired ~ no wonder.  Well, I knew he would probably not do anything as far as Christmas decorating.....I saw a small live tree that comes complete with lights and decorations, so I ordered it for him.  Let him know approximately when it would come, and then ~ with all the nonsense that is going on at work, I promptly forgot about it.  Earlier this week he asked me again when it would come..here's that story.....

For some reason I couldn't find any information about my order in either of my email accounts, which I thought was odd.  Nor could I figure out the payment method after a quick check (usually Paypal, but not this time!).  So, I called the company, gave them information, and they had someone call me back.  

Did the guy have an accent?  Of course he did, but it wasn't too bad, his English was pretty good.  Our phone connection was awful, I had to keep asking him to repeat himself, which prompted him to inform me he was calling from his home.  And there was this horrible crowing sound, about every two minutes.  And it was loud!  I tried so hard to pay attention to what he was trying to tell me, but that stupid rooster was on a roll....

Finally in frustration I said  "if you could just get away from that damned chicken, maybe I could hear you"!  

I have never said that phrase to anyone in my life, and don't expect I ever will again, haha.  

My son had a nice little chuckle over that :-)

Love, 365

As the tooth turns.....

 

Well, not quite true, but almost.....

Truth!

Oh, the drama.  I mentioned my boss is planning on retiring at the end of February, the office manager is retiring the end of February.  On Wednesday everyone was asking "had I heard?", which I had not ~ I had taken Tuesday off to lengthen my Thanksgiving break.  One of our dental assistants found a job closer to her home and Tuesday was her last day.  We just hired a dental assistant for the other doc, and now we are back to square one.  

The interesting thing is that one of our employees, who has been with the practice the longest, had arranged to be off on Friday's, and the assistant who left us is the person who worked for her on those Friday's.  So now there's a question if she will have to come back on Friday again ~ which she will not do, so she may retire at the end of December.  

Although I'm not calling any of these folks a rat, it does seem as though we're all leaving.  Which is scary to the employees that will be left.  How will they ever find enough people to fill those positions?  

My plan is to keep my head down and do my job until May 31st.  If they ask me to stay (as I stupidly offered) I will say no.  I don't want to get caught up in it.  

Out of 16 people, 2 have already gone, and 5 more are due to leave before June of next year.  I have no doubt that they will be able to use the bilge pump to right the ship, it's gonna be a rocky, bumpy ride.  No one has said anything about who will take over the office manager position.  I still think there's a possibility that the wife of the dentist who is staying might do it......I've never worked in an office where that was a good thing, nor have I heard of an office where it didn't cause more than a few problems.  It's pretty hard to remain impartial when your husband is the dentist.  

Well, I have a luncheon to go to, so I better get ready.  How I dislike dressing up, ugh.  It would be great if we could just wear jeans and a tee shirt ~ my outfit of choice.

Love, 365