An absolutely nothing day

My first "outrageous cozy."

It didn’t start well, but it started early. By two o’clock this morning, I had been in bed maybe two hours and was sleeping soundly. Sophie woke me, clicking her nails on the wood floor and doing the dance she does when she needs to go outside. As I let her out, I lectured her on coming right back in—but she never does. While I waited, I booted the computer and checked something that had been on my mind. Then I sat in the doorway, hoping she’d come to me.

Instead, Christian appeared. After we both said, “What are you doing up at this hour,” we straightened out that I was up because Sophie was out, and he was up because he heard Sophie’s distinctive bark and thought something was wrong if she was out at two o’clock. Then he looked out the window, saw me at my computer, and thought that was definitely wrong. He brought Soph inside, and we all went back to our beds.

Only Sophie was desperate to go out again at four o’clock, five-twenty, and six-thirty. One time I watched to see if she really had a problem—and she did. She tried hard to throw up. Another time, knowing she gets out and won’t come to me, I put her on her leash and sat in the doorway holding the leash. Of course, she just stood there looking bewildered.

After the six-thirty adventure, we both slept until almost nine. But she is clearly not feeling well. She's turned down both turkey and Velveeta, the things I use to sneak a Benadryl into her. Although she’s not snuffling as much as sometimes, I think it must be her allergies. She’s been eating grass for a couple of days and hasn’t eaten her food. Guess who’s calling the vet in the morning. And meanwhile hoping for a good sleep tonight.

With a late start, I was just a bit “off” all day. Wrote almost a thousand words, but they weren’t my best words, did odds and ends, put on my activist hat in a couple of instances—truth is I can’t tell you exactly what I did with the day.

Jordan came out to have a companionable glass of wine while we watched the evening news. Christian was in Dallas at a get-together of his high school friends, and she was going out to a business dinner. We talked about what Jacob would eat since he would not have the tuna casserole I was fixing for myself. With homemade chicken broth and white wine and topped with crushed potato chips, it was so good I ate too much. As I was cooking, Jacob came in trying for casual and said, “Hey, what are you doing for dinner tonight?” When I said I had already offered to share my tuna, he laughed and shook his head. Pretty soon he was back, asking nicely if he could have my credit card to order a hamburger. He came in a minute ago, handed me the card, and announced he had ordered McDonald’s. I told him he’s a real class act.

The good news is that surgeons were able to align grandson Kegan’s broken leg today, under anesthesia, cast it, and secure it with pins. No surgery necessary—surgery is difficult in a fifteen-year-old because the insertion of a rod would mess with the growth plate. So Kegan is lucky, and we are all relieved. In hospital pictures, he’s got kind of a wry smile but at least it’s a smile.

And last night out of the blue I had a chatty call from my oldest grandchild—Maddie, in Denver. She’s working at an Apple genius bar and preparing for nursing school which she will start in June and which preparation is more complicated than I realized. She called just to say hello and check in. Be still my heart!

So now I’m going to tackle a few more words on that mystery. If they’re not my best words, at least they are something on paper, and I can change, edit, etc. later. I am calling the Irene in Chicago culinary novels “outrageous cozies.” Want to read my thoughts on this sub-genre I may have named if not invented? I talked about it on a guest blog today. Here’s a link: https://saraheglenn.blogspot.com/.../judy-alter...

Sweet dreams, y’all!

A wasted but big day—figure that one out!

I’ve been up since 6:30 this morning—way too early for me—and I didn’t sleep well. I never sleep well when I have an early appointment, partly because I’m afraid of oversleeping. I wish I could figure out the alarm on either my bedside clock or my phone, but I haven’t. Part of my techy challenge. This morning, I was particularly anxious because I was to see the retina specialist about a symptom I thought he should know about before he went to cutting and slicing on my eyeball—the very idea gives me the shivers. But he gave me a clean bill of health, and the surgery is now scheduled for January 4. I’ll be asking for prayers!

The downside of that was that my eyes were dilated. One of the things I love about my cottage is all the windows and the bright sunlight that streams in. Didn’t love it so much today, and while I could pretty much read on the computer screen, I really couldn’t concentrate on doing much. So it was a wasted morning, of sorts, though I took care of some odds and ends.

Christian had dropped me off at the eye doctor’s office this morning, and a kind neighbor had agreed to pick me up. But Jordan emailed to say she was unexpectedly home, and I replied I was in an examining room, waiting for the doctor—always a good sign that the appointment is almost over. She said to call her. I did, no answer, so I called the neighbor. Then when I was in the downstairs lobby of the building, Jordan called and demanded, “Where are you?” I told her, and she said, “I’m in the doctor’s lobby.” I cancelled the neighbor and got back to Jordan—after a bit we got it straightened out. The ophthalmologist and the retina guy office in adjacent building Whew! I got home, thanks to my daughter.

The big news of the day is that Jordan booked the two of us on a Great Lakes Cruise at the end of next August—8 days,7 nights on a ship that holds only 200+ passengers and hits most of the spots on my bucket list.  The Great Lakes—specifically Michigan and Ontario—are home to me, and I’m more intrigued with this than the Alaska cruise we talked about. This one leaves from outside Toronto, and we may take a day or two there—I might explore family sites. The cruise ends in Chicago, and we’re hoping some of Jordan’s siblings will want to meet us there.

Another nice event of the day: good friends came for wine and happy hour. Sue calls me her Fort Worth mom, because her mom is far away in Ottawa, Ontario. She and the love of her life have announced their engagement, with a June wedding in the offing. So tonight, I got to share in their joy—they are both radiant—and hear all the details.

Jacob sort of chased them off about 7:15 when he announced he was hungry—his parents are out tonight. I ended the day by frying sausage and potatoes for him and, after he was served, adding caramelized onions left from a take-ou dinner for me.

For me, today illustrates the way our lives are filled with equal measures of stress, even fear, and joyous events. I often work on strengthening my faith, but I think today, as we head into the season of joyous celebration, is a reminder to rest assured in faith and let go of fear. Hope I can live up to that.

Sleepless Nights and Better Days

Although so many people rave about the pleasure of reading in bed, I never could do it, never could get comfortable. But then my kids encouraged me to get a Sleep Numbers mattress where I can raise and lower the head and/or the foot (it proved important after my hip surgery). Now I’m addicted to bedtime reading. It’s often when I indulge in mysteries, while I confine my daytime reading to meatier subjects (not always). Right now, night and day, I’m reading Sara Paretsky’s Fallout, a V. I. Warshawksi novel. No matter the quality, most books put me to sleep in five pages.

But last night, as I took the cell phone out of its pocket on my walker, I must have done something wrong. It went to huge letters and wouldn’t let me move around nor would it let me turn it off. I gave up and got up for the iPad, which was out of charge. Had to rely on my imagination to put me to sleep.

In a half doze, I remembered words I read to the effect that the president is enraged that a Russian cloud still hangs over his presidency and is further enraged that Donald Jr has revealed the emails. Wouldn’t you love to have been a fly on the wall when senior confronted junior? Anyway, the thought of an enraged president, who I already think is unhinged, roaming the White House alone at 3 a.m., red telephone in hand, came to me, and I was suddenly terrified—really truly terrified. I must have fallen asleep—I dreamt of being alone at night and so terrified I couldn’t sleep so I was up changing the bed linen (don’t ask why—I have no clue), checking that lights worked, turning on TVs, and wishing it was morning. I was relieved to awaken about an hour later and realize I was safely in my bed, the cottage was intact, and the world pretty much was going around on its own. I slept fitfully all night.

This morning, Jordan declared that what was wrong with my phone was that I had gone “clackety-clack.” I protested innocence, and we had a testy moment. Then Jacob tried and announced, “Your phone is broke. Take it to the Apple store,” as though I could just jump up and go. I called the Apple store, was connected to a distance tech who said my email didn’t pull up/ She couldn’t wrap her mind around the server name—tcu. First clue she wasn’t in Fort Worth. Finally, she gave up, asked what the problem was, and quickly told me how to fix it. If you need to know: simultaneously hold down the volume and power buttons for at least 30 seconds. Magic!

After that the day went better; I took care of some detail work, including banking, answered a bunch of emails, roughed out a newsletter, and wrote my daily thousand words on the novel in progress. This evening, I’m free to prowl through a cache of recipes I found in my closet. To me, that’s bliss.

A friend brought barbecue tonight—turkey, sausage, pulled pork, potato salad, and good slaw made with red cabbage. Jordan and Christian joined us for conversation. A thoroughly pleasant evening.