Always Learning

 Since I've never lived in a snowy climate before, I'm learning all sorts of things I didn't know about cold weather.  

The first huge learning was the day of J.'s hip replacement surgery when high winds (not at all uncommon here) blew very dry snow (also not uncommon) across the freeway.  The result was instant ice and lots of cars sliding all over the place.  I'd never thought of wind and dry snow creating a hazard but wow, it sure did.  So now, when there are wind warnings we'll know if there's a lot of snow on the ground, be wary about traveling anywhere by car. 

Today, another lesson.  I did get outside and with J.'s help, we worked on clearing a bunch of dirt (from moles digging around plants) and then applied the mole deterrent granules around all the plants.  The granules have to be watered into the dirt which creates a smell the moles don't like.  We know it works because our first Fall/Winter in the house, the moles were going crazy over on the other side of the house.  We got cocky and complacent and didn't keep up on re-applying.  We won't make that mistake again.  

It's good timing because the pest control company was here to apply the pre-emergent weed granules and those also have to be watered in.  We'd hoped for some rain to do it for us - but the weather is looking very clear for the next few days and we've already waiting close to 4 weeks for rain - so it's time to just water the product in ourselves.  

So I started watering....watering all the rock, all the plants, everywhere - so the pellets will desolve and keep weeds at bay.  We hope.  

There was a corner of the sidewalk where we have a pretty planter and I stepped on it once and slipped a bit.  Didn't fall - thank goodness - but had an 'what the heck' moment trying to figure out what was making it so slick there.  It happened again.  And again.  No bodily harm...but then I saw it.  Ice was forming on the sidewalk where some water had been applied.  I never thought it was cold enough to freeze - it's 45 outside right now.  But that particular corner gets very little sun and since it was very cold last night (our weather station said it was 12 degrees in the pre-dawn hours), the earth holds the cold.  Water + no sun + super cold concrete = ice.  Lesson learned.  

I steered J. away from walking on that corner and we carefully made our way back to the garage entrance from the side yard.  I'll finish up the other half of the yard tomorrow and then do the front yard on Monday.  I feel pretty stupid watering rock - but it's what the company said we need to do.  I'm not sure I'm giving it a huge drenching - I should - but we still have a few days to keep watering.  

J. headed to Lady Tamales to pick up lunch and dinner - pork tamales, cheese enchiladas and beans.  

Digging Right in to 2022

Monday, January 24, 2022

J. had a monthly golf group meeting and lunch here in Carson.  The group is trying out various places to hold these monthly get togethers and today was at Fandango Casino.  He said the lunch wasn't that great but it was nice to be close here in town vs. driving a ways.  He's glad to have car mobility back and it sounds like we will trek to Atlantis together later this week - he can hang out in the very nice VIP lounge and get our 'stuff' done - it's the time of year for new cards, new parking pass and our January car wash coupons.  I think he'll also take my car to be washed while we're in Reno - it needs it.  Weeks and weeks of snow, ice, mud and gunk - it's really in need of some TLC inside and out.

I decided to plow into 2022 by working on our taxes.  My theory is confirming what our refund will be will help us know what to sketch out for withdrawals.  Factoring in things like possible cruise, etc. - if we get a decent refund, we can limp along for (quite) a while before needing to do a withdrawal and that would be nice.  

Weather has been lovely - we were ready for huge winds this past weekend but nothing happened.  Woot woot!  

It's the one year anniversary (roughly this time last year not any specific day) we realized H. was using heroin again.  I wish I had pithy things to say and some sort of verbal summation of how things are these days but I don't.  

January 25, 2022

It's a day later and I'm dressed and ready for casino time.  J. will be home from physical therapy soon and we'll leave for Reno a bit later.  The cleaning ladies were here yesterday so the house is sparkly.  

I went outside for a bit when the cleaning ladies were working in the office and J. pointed out a HUGE mole/vole mound on our side of the fence.  Tomorrow, I will tackle it - I used a big shovel to put as much of the dirt back on the golf course side of the fence but will need to use a trowel to get most of the dirt away from our plant and then use the jet setting on the hose to clean off all the river rock that is covered in dirt.  Then I'll use the mole/vole keep away granules on all the plants along the fence.  It's easy to apply but has to be watered in to create the scent that keeps them away.  Mostly the moles/voles had moved away from our fence and onto the course more - but they are back officially on our side and we'll have to really be vigilant because they will destroy all our plants in the blink of an eye. 

January 29, 2022

I promise at the end of this post to publish this darn entry!  Days just fly by.  

I intended to get right outside this morning to work in the yard - but it was 35 degrees around 9AM so I thought better of it.  It's 9 degrees warmer and it's not quite noon - so I'd better get going on the project regardless of the cold.  

I pinned my hair up so it won't be in my eyes.  I don't know how ladies with longish hair cope with the constant hair in the eyes.  Makes me crazy.  

We ordered some Mexican food from Lady Tamales and will pick it up at 2.  We picked up takeout dinner there earlier this week and the food was so delicious.  She was running out of food when we picked up our dinner so we called when she opened today to get a dozen pork tamales, six cheese enchiladas and some pinto beans.  Dinner tonight, lunch tomorrow and likely dinner tomorrow night as well is done!  Woot woot.  

I have had a few nights of 'better' sleep.  I think I can attribute that to having worked through some psyche stuff.  Might post about that another time.  In general, I'm working hard on being kinder to myself on the 'beating myself up about every mistake I've ever made since the dawn of time'.  Is it normal as we age to start reviewing/rethinking everything we've ever done?  'Cuz I've been doing a fair amount of that and it's usually as I (try) to get to sleep and then throughout the nights.  Stopping the trash talking to myself - reminding myself that whatever mistakes were made were what led me to the different places and spaces I've had/been in and it's all good.  Life is fine.  Blessed.  Happy.  So spending an exorbitant amount of time reliving odd moments from decades ago....it's a waste of time.  And not the kind of positivity I am trying to possess.  

That's it for now.  Hitting publish!  

 

Sunny and Cold

There's still a smidge of snow underneath J.'s bedroom window - the only way snow got there was the huge winds that blew it all over the place.  There's not a ton of sun on that spot during the day and the temps are still pretty darn cold so it's going to take awhile.  

I drove to Reno on Saturday and there were a lot of 'ice cubes' along the freeway edge - waiting for enough sun to melt what was snow and has now morphed into ice blocks.  That will also take awhile.  Still plenty of fresh snow on all the surrounding hills and it's so pretty.  

J. is going to drive himself to physical therapy today!  It's only 5 minutes away and he's done a short drive around the neighborhood in my car and managed fine.  If the repaired hip was the right hip, he wouldn't be driving for a long time but it's his left and our cars are automatic so...he's good to go.  He still isn't feeling up to trekking to Atlantis - it's a much longer drive and the walking to/from and inside the casino feels like a bit much - but it's great for him to have some mobility and independence to get to/from doctor and PT visits.  He's doing really well and getting around with the cane is a big improvement over the bulky walker.  

We reached out to our landscaper for a recommendation of some help with our landscape care and as I type this, the hum of a blower clearing out debris from the front yard is just outside the windows here.  They've pruned all the plants back and clean debris as they go.  The front yard looks great already and the backyard is in process.  The best part?  They charge by the hour and we don't need help monthly - so we'll just have them come 2-4 times a year for maintenance as needed!  SCORE!  I'm so happy.  The hourly rate she quoted is pretty high but it's a team of three people so it's really not bad at all!  They have been working steadily for an hour (so far) and the estimate was two hours - based on Google maps (which showed them the side of the lot).  It's well worth the expense and I'll start doing a monthly savings amount to our household account so we'll always have what we need to pay them.  

Such a relief to have the help because even without J.'s hip replacement, we've realized it's a huge amount of yard for two people in their golden years.  

We just purchased tickets for the Beyond Van Gogh event at the Reno Convention Center - for August!  Totally excited to see this amazing exhibit!  

I'm working on a pantry overhaul and realized late yesterday that the pantry shelves on the left and the back wall are much deeper than the ones on the right side.  Why is this important?  Because the pantry hack (thank you, You Tube and FitFrugalMom) uses bins that were deeper than the shelves I first started to use for this plan - and to discover that if I just shift to the other side and all will be well - was a huge Huzzah! moment!

It's the little things these days.  

 

Recovery

J. is such a champ.  He's had two sessions of physical therapy and a post-op appointment with the surgeon.  Everything looks good.  A nurse removed the super high-tech bandage - it came with a small device that acted as a vacuum pump - kept the wound closed without stitches!  As we were told on his surgery day, the device stopped working around day 8 but it did it's job well.  The incision looks 'perfect' and will continue to heal.  X-rays confirmed all the things inserted in bone are where they should be and the new super high-tech joint looks great, too. 

Today, we headed out to get him a cane - easier to use in the house and it's time he starts getting the feel of not using a walker.  On the advice of our neighbors, we went to a restaurant in one of the tiniest casinos I've ever seen.  Tee Jay's Corner Cafe did not disappoint.  A mixture of Thai, Filipino and American.  We ordered two Thai dishes and something called Cheesy Noodles (Cheesy Noods - noodles is abbreviated Noods on the menu).  Everything was delicious.  

As we approached the counter, I said 'I think we'll need to order take out' because the only seats were at the counter and the chairs were way too high for J. to sit on safely.  But right away, one of the owners came out from behind the counter and said 'let me set up a table for you'.  It wasn't the biggest table but it did the trick.  

It was great food prepared by very nice people and they do take out as well so that's great!  It was nice to get out of the house for a bit together.  

I feel accomplished to have cut down the cardboard boxes stacked by the mud room door.  Tomorrow is trash day and I forgot that last week and had to do a mad dash in the dark.  But the trash bin is already on the curb and the two full recycle bins will be out on the curb mid-morning for their pickup.  

I had a heck of a time with the gate last week and J. put in a call to the builder's customer service guy - and the fence company showed up yesterday and did a brilliant job of fixing it.  Back to opening and closing perfectly without a huge amount of brute force needed.  

Also yesterday, the pest control company we used arrived to apply the pre-emergent product.  We hope to have rain in the next 30 days otherwise, we'll have to water it in ourselves.  Rain seems pretty likely at some point in the next 4 weeks.  

We decided to store Christmas in bins we can stack against the wall on the single car space side of the garage.  I don't plan to stack them too high and will have to do 2 or 3 rows to get it all put away.  We have so many spiral trees - always a favorite when we lived in Tracy.  But the wind bursts we have here really make things that are staked into the ground problematic.  I'll be researching options in October next year because the front and back would look beautiful with a bunch of lighted trees scattered around.  We didn't do as much this year because J.'s pain level from his hip was significant - but hopefully next year, he'll be feeling great and we can make it happen.

B. took his first solo flight a couple days ago - I felt so choked up watching the video as he took off.  So happy he's found something he's incredibly passionate about.  Like his dad - flying is his thing.  

I watched the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter special on HBO - felt choked up a lot during the show.  Watching those kids grow up on screen and reliving the joy of the books in all seven films was just overwhelming.  I don't think I've ever loved a book series so much.  

We have leftover Thai food for dinner and I'm also going to cook some chicken wings in the air fryer.  I've been craving them and bought some when I made a quick run to Savemart for some salad fixings.  

New Years & More

It's been awhile.  Sorry.  

We were able to enjoy dinner with our neighbors on Tuesday, 12/28.  Lovely evening with lovely people.  And as usual, while we invited them and let them know the dinner was on us, they insisted on using their comps to pay for the meal.  We had three (THREE!) bottles of wine between the five of us and then we played a bit.  Everyone but me ended up 'up' for the evening - but I lost a bit.  It's the usual 'I could keep playing and maybe the machine will turn' but we had two nights planned at Atlantis for New Years so I was trying to go slow.

B. winged his way back to Nashville on Thursday.  He had a long travel day with flight delays but he made it home.  It was lovely having him - as it always is.  Missed him so much as he and Jim headed to the airport - my heart hurt.  

J. and I enjoyed NYE at Atlantis - the event didn't feel as 'spectacular' as events of the past - and I woke up feeling absolutely horrible.  Nausea and other 'stomach stuff'.  Not sure if it was something I ate.  It could have been something (or a few somethings) I drank.  Beer while at the slot machines, red and white wine with dinner, shots of Tequila at midnight and the guy at the table next to us ordered us champagne as well - so...that was a lot.  We decided to splurge on the buffet brunch and I did feel better after I ate.  But I felt off for days after.  It was worth it.  We made it to the balloon drop at midnight and it was a really fun evening. 

During J.'s preop appointment, the PA (Physician's Assistant) suggested/encouraged us to consider spending the night in Reno on Sunday to ensure we wouldn't experience weather related issues trying to get to Reno from Carson.  A quick call to our hostess secured us a third night.  J. had returned home on Saturday for a night but I wanted to play - and Saturday's play ended up being the best of the three days.  

We arrived at Renown Southmeadows Campus in Reno at 5:30AM on Monday morning.  J. got checked in and I sat with him as they did all the pre-op stuff.  There was a lot of new pre-op stuff because of COVID - including 4 nasal swabs (2 for each nostril) dipped in an iodine 'pasty' solution used to swab his nose.  Also a mouth rinse/wash - brushed his teeth with it then gargled with it.  Then using disinfectant towels on his entire body - something he'd been doing for the two previous days at home as well.  All designed to create a barrier for bacteria or germs to get into your body.  

When they wheeled him to surgery, I knew I had a few hours so (as we'd talked about), I headed back to the hotel to check out and then drove to Carson City.  

There were high wind advisory warnings which are never 'fun'.  There are two large bridges on the route and I am always nervous about those 'higher' spots of the drive - but I got past the last (and the biggest) of the two bridges and breathed a sigh of relief.  "The worst of the drive was over".  Or so I thought.  

Coming down into the low valley, I saw snow on the road.  A lot of snow.  And realized - as we had last week when the wind hitting the dry snow created desert like 'snow drifts' - mounds and mounds of blown snow everywhere - three feet of snow under J.'s bedroom window which is under an eave - yikes, the wind was blowing snow onto the road.  I proceeded incredibly slowly - it was wet, icy, snowy and windy - but I made it home.  Dropped of suitcase, checked in with the cats.  Didn't want to stay away too long - so I headed back.  Road going north had same issues - even worse, really - much more snow and ice - but I made it back to the hospital.  Found J. in his assigned room - he was asleep but awakened when I arrived.  He was doing really well.  Not too uncomfortable.  

The day proceeded as most 'getting out of the hospital today' days do - a series of things that the hospital required.  Respiratory therapist, occupational therapist, physical therapist, an IV bag of antibiotics.  I kept saying 'we need to really get going or we may not make it home tonight'.  No one listened.  They kept doing their thing.  

We left Reno at 4PM.  The highway was open with 'pilot cars' taking cars through the valley.  We hit huge stopped traffic 15 minutes after we left Reno and were still in the traffic by 8:30PM that night.  You read that right - 4.5 hours sitting in traffic.  At 7PM (which none of us sitting in the traffic jam knew and even if we had known, there was nothing to do about it and nowhere to go to avoid the backup), they closed the valley road due to extreme ice and wind conditions - and started turning southbound traffic around.  

We found out about the turn around plan from a State trooper who had stopped to help a woman with a disabled car.  Once we realized 'OK, we're heading back to Reno', we phoned and got a room - handicap room to ensure there were bars near the toilet and in the shower.  Shortly after making the reservation and advising we had zero idea of when we would arrive, 5 NHP cars with sirens blaring headed north bound - fast.  I said to J. 'there's an accident'.  Sure enough - a big rig - who shouldn't have been on the highway at all because in high winds, trucks higher than 9 feet are prohibited - had tipped over - across all four lanes of the freeway.  We got stuck in that backup for a bit as well.  

Arrived in Reno close to 10:20ish (we think - can't really remember) and got settled for the night.  

Next morning, I decided I'd do my free play that day instead of coming back later that week.  Also went to get breakfast using our weekly food vouchers - got hassled by the restaurant manager insisting that J. had to be present to use the voucher.  We've never had any issue with that at any restaurant on the property and y'all know we have been playing there forever.  It wasn't a great morning but....old 395 was open.  That's the route between Reno & Carson before the freeway was built.  We headed out with help from a bell boy to help with our luggage and a security person to push J. in the wheelchair.  

We made it home and they had opened the freeway in both directions shortly after we arrived home.  Exhausted and never so happy to be home.  

J. is doing phenomenally well.  He is Day 5 post surgery and continues to improve daily - hasn't ever had horrible pain and any pain he has there are medications available if needed.  

I'm doing my best to be as wonderful as a care giver to him as he always is to me - but I have to say it is a lot.  Makes you realize just how much your spouse/partner does around the homestead when you're suddenly doing all of it.  

My New Year's wish?  A fence gate that doesn't stick.  Our fence gate is off kilter or something - it's a beast to open and impossible to close.  I swear I've never had a house with a working gate.  J. says 'it's the weather'.  And I say 'wood contracts in the cold so if it's this bad now, it will be unusable completely in Spring/Summer'.  We're going to have to get it fixed 'cuz I had to put the trash bin (which blew all the way down the street on Friday morning post-pickup) in the garage 'cuz I can't get it into the back with the clugy gate.  

P. reached out to me this morning that she got a text from H. asking (again) for $ for tires for his car.  The car he doesn't have.  She said she asked him 'for a picture of your car' and he stopped texting.  She said 'I was so happy to see you and J. celebrating New Years - please don't feel guilty'.  I told her 'I really don't anymore.  Guilt?  I have zero guilt.  His choices are creating where he's at still/again/always and I'm pretty clear on that, right?  He's been in this cycle of addiction for more than a decade at this point and while the drug of choice wasn't always heroin (maybe it was.  H. knows and he's not talking), the pattern of choosing a life of addiction has been his go-to for a long time.  

It's still hard, always will be hard and it is what it is.   

I ventured to Atlantis for free-play swipe & win (a monthly event) - it was 'fun' but not as fun without my designated driver.  A waitress came over and said 'Blue Moon with an orange in a chilled glass, poured' and I said 'thank you for remembering but sadly, today, I have no DD so I will have a diet Cherry Coke, please'.  

I'm home and having a Blue Moon in a chilled glass in an Atlantis pint beer glass - it's not the same.  Just saying.  

Happy New Year to all!!