Merrily down the stream....

Good morning. And I’m using my headset microphone and dictation and trying to get used to it. The sun has not come up yet. I’m simmering cloves,lemon slices and cinnamon sticks in a little pan on the stove. The aroma is scenting  the house in a wonderful way that smells like Christmas. I love doing that in December. It makes me happy. I still feel a little sad that the kids are grown but now we have the grandkids. Due to the pandemic we don’t see them much. My sense of taste and smell never fully returned after the stem cell transplant. There was some wicked chemo that was used to penetrate the blood- brain barrier. It took me about seven months after that to be able to taste or smell anything at all and even now five years later I’m still not normal. I can smell the simmering Christmas concoction a bit. I can sometimes smell my own armpits. Some perfumes I’m unable to smell nor natural gas from the stove. It is what it is. I’ve stopped dictating. It seems weird to be speaking out loud while I’m sitting here alone. To me it’s somewhat cathartic to type. 

This is Friday and the students I’m subbing for are asynchronous. I have put activities in their online folders. It just seems weird. So I have three more weeks of this gig- two after Christmas break and the last week of it, on Jan.11 is supposed to be in person with kids. I’m a bit ambivalent but keeping an open mind. It would only be five days. 

The sun is coming up now. I just went out to the kitchen and made another cup of coffee and opened the blinds on the back windows and sliding glass doors and Bitzi didn’t wake up or come out of her igloo so I just let her sleep. On days when I’ve been starting work online at eight I take her out for her first walk at seven but today she can sleep. Mike still takes her out to pee in the middle of the night but she surely doesn’t need it. She usually just wanders back in to her igloo by nine every night and puts herself to bed. She’s very well tempered and behaved.

After this sub job is done I’m not sure if I want to take more especially as schools are talking about returning students before the pandemic is over and vaccines have been given widely. Maybe my immune system is strong enough now but I still don’t produce immunoglobulins like normal humans so it’s a bit tricky....

Stormy morning

7:40am

My rooster alarm went off at 6:45. It hadn’t been working right but it did today. It’s raining and thundering outside. I’m going to take Bitzi out with the umbrella then drive over and tend the spaniels. I hope it’s not rainy and overcast all day.

Rise up

I met an old friend for lunch today. It had been over a year since I’d seen her. It was good to catch up. I also stopped to see another old friend in Peoria on my way home Sunday. I had never seen her new

house. I felt sweaty and cruddy from traveling and driving that day. It was good to catch up.

I have to go meet with the lady about tending her two Tibetan spaniels for the next two weeks starting Thursday. I’ll have to go over to her house four times a day and let them out and tend them.

Thursday I also have to go to the McHenry county ROE in Woodstock and get fingerprinted for my criminal background check so I can be on the sub list for McHenry County and Friday I have to attend a 2-3 hour orientation to sub for Huntley school district. I’m not still even sure I want to but I do want to have options and keep contributing to my IRA so......

Tomorrow we’re having some rooms painted and the bedroom closet attic fixed so we can put luggage up there and the living room TV mounted on a wall bracket and some garage lights added. 

Relief

12:01pm

I got up early this morning and left at 7 to go to the Elgin DMV to be there before they opened at 7:30 because I need to renew my drivers license, take the eye exam and get my real ID. I’ve been nervous for weeks since the renewal notice came stating I’d need an eye exam. When I arrived at the DMV there was already a huge line to get in winding all the way around the parking lot. I stood in line in the brisk windy morning air over two hours. Once I finally got inside the process went quickly and I didn’t even have to have an eye exam. I was so relieved!

We watched the first presidential debate last night. I already couldn’t hate Trump any more than I already do. He should be terminated.