Two days of work and my shoulders are killing me. Oy vey. Karin has promised to give me a massage tomorrow. She’s very good at it but she doesn’t do it long enough to stick. This week has been insane and it’s only Tuesday, god help me. HOLP! My mom and sister are in frazzled crazy mode, trying to get everything done before the Friday hand-the-keys-over deadline and I think their crazy has rubbed off on me, all the way from Michigan.
We had a bad scare yesterday with Anders’ mom. The nurse called Anders’ sister mid-morning, who called him, and told them to get over there as quickly as possible. She had been up, having breakfast, but went back to bed after, and when the nurse came in to give her meds, found her unresponsive. The doctor was called and when Anders and his sister got there, she was still pretty out of it, and couldn’t speak, and didn’t seem to know who they were or where she was.
We suspect another mini stroke, as she’s had a couple of those before. They didn’t send her to the hospital, because of both COVID (which she was diagnosed with 12 days ago, so shouldn’t be contagious any more) and because she has a non-hospitalization, non-intervention clause in her care profile. We had to tell the kids, which was awful, but thankfully later in the evening, we heard that she had been up, drinking nyponsoppa and today we got the report that she was much better, though still confused, and did remember that Anders and Maria were there yesterday. Turns out that there is some evidence that stroke is also a coronavirus symptom, so even if she has had an extremely mild case otherwise, it’s hard to say if that’s the cause…also because we don’t know for sure that it WAS a stroke. Fingers crossed for a full recovery!
I took Christmas down over the weekend. 3 boxes of inside decorations (plus 1 bag and a wreath box), and 2 boxes of tree decorations. One would never guess that I did a major Christmas decoration purge last year and got rid of ONE WHOLE BOX. There are also 2 bags for advent lights and the stars but those are still up until next weekend because we can’t bear to part with the extra light.
Today, the sun was shining in a bright blue sky; the first sunny day in quite awhile. I asked Anders if he wanted to go for a quick walk around the neighborhood with me after I ate lunch and he said yes! So we bundled up (it’s been hovering around 1C) and headed out to get a faceful of vitamin D. It turned out there was black ice everywhere the sun hadn’t actually been on our street, so we had to be really careful and walk like penguins to avoid slipping. It made my hips hurt. Where’s my cane, I’m so old.
I am currently watching Dickinson (based on the life of Emily the poet) on Apple+ while I walk on the treadmill and it is SO good. The second season just started and it’s been renewed for a third, but I kind of wonder where it’s going to go after her teenage years (or if it will) because she was basically a recluse by her late 30s. I’ve actually been to her home in Amherst, with my mom, and uncle Sam and Joanne, back in 2009, but because we were short on time, we only did a quick “poet” tour and missed the more extensive one that included her brother’s house next door and much more info about her and her family. I’d like to get back out to that area someday; there was so much to see and do!
Anders and I are watching Six Feet Under, which we’ve never seen. I remember hearing about it, and that it was good, but it was on when we had small kids and busy lives and no time, and I didn’t watch much TV back then. I don’t actually know if it was on Swedish television at all, since it was an HBO show. It’s REALLY good so far and I’m glad we have 5 seasons to enjoy.
I’ve been readng quite a bit of young adult fiction for some reason. I stumbled upon Rebecca Stead’s book When You Reach Me on Kindle, and after gulping it down, I devoured all her books, one after the other, and now I’m reading I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson, which is excellent as well and full of the kind of writing that makes ME want to write more. After I’m done (probably tonight), I need to get moving on the bookworms book, since we have our meeting next Thursday, sadly on Zoom again.