Buffalo Bills Fans Show Their Colors

Molly, the little Shih Tzu shown above, is the frequent subject of my cameras.  Molly visits us almost every day and has been known to run away from home to come visit us.  Her mom, Kelly (also shown above) is a dedicated Buffalo Bills fan and she watches most of the football games with my husband.  We decided that Molly needed a little push in the right direction (she's secretly a New England Patriots fan) so we got her the official Bills jersey for Christmas.  Kelly already had her jersey.

Aren't they cute?

Fired Up for My Kindle Fire

I'm waiting ---not patiently---  for my Kindle Fire to be delivered.  My first Kindle has been a constant companion during hospital stays, chemo, and recovery.  It has been elevated to the importance of a life necessity.  I expect the Fire will give even more.

Whining Alert

One of the tough things about cancer is to have a major medical test and then have to wait days or weeks for the results. I wait and whine.

Just Rhetoric

You know how people are always saying things , like "Let us know if you need some help." Last week I decided that I needed help transporting a full sized scooter from inside our house to Leon's room at the nursing home. I thought of a guy I know who has a teenaged son and I thought the two of them could put the scooter on their truck and off-load it at the home.

So I called. No one answered the phone so I left a message. I thought I'd get a reply the next morning. I didn't. Okay, the next morning. I didn't. At that point, I decided they were on vacation. I waited a week. No reply. I waited a second week. No reply. This morning I ran into the spouse of the guy I called. They weren't on vacation.

I solved the transfer of the scooter by calling the local cab company. Two of their vans have ramps. They loaded and unloaded the scooter for me and charged eight bucks. I had planned pay the other guy $25.

I'm back to ignoring offers of help. Most of the time, they're just words.

A Home Visit

Yesterday was a great day. My husband was home for the first time since February 14. Hornell, a very small city, made that possible. The local bus company has some buses equipped with lifts for wheelchair patients. I called the company and arranged rides for him to come home.

We are trying to adjust to our new lives and this is making it much easier. My husband is in a nursing home permanently and I'm living alone for the first time ever. Wait. That's not quite true. I have my two cats.

The Day A Telemarketer Hung Up on Me

Yesterday a telemarketer called. I had a choice of pressing "1' if I wanted my credit card interest rate reduced. Feeling a little grumpy and thoroughly frustrated by the increase in these calls, I decided to press "1". When a real live person came on the line, I asked, "Does anyone there know how to read?" The telemarketer asked me to repeat what I had just said so I asked again if anyone there knew how to read. He cautiously answered yes. I said, "Good. Then read the national Do Not Call list because........" Slam. He hung up on me.

Ah, gee.

Charlie Too

Many, many years ago, my husband and I had a much beloved dog by the name of Charlie Brown. Charlie was a cross between a bassett and beagle. We referred to him as a bassgle. He was a character and after all these years, people still talk about him and of course, he is still very much alive in our hearts. My husband just had a birthday--- which is somewhat of a miracle considering what he went through in a six-week time span, starting on Valentine Day. He had a total hip replacement, two heart attacks, sepsis including a fever of 105 degrees, the C. diff infection, and finally, the implantation of a pacemaker. In that time span, he was in three different hospitals and two nursing homes. His health has improved greatly in the last three weeks and he is now settled in a nursing home for rehab and has set June 15th as his goal to make it home. To make that goal, he has to learn to stand and walk again. My sisters decided he needed a special birthday present so they gave him one of Melissa and Doug's plush animals, pictured above. His gift looks remarkably like our original Charlie Brown so he named his new companion Charlie Too.